Please find below the latest update from our deployment in Somaliland, where ShelterBox is providing homes for thousands of IDPs (internally displaced persons, or refugees within their own country). One of our newest SRTs, Mark Dyer of Illinois, is on the ground now, assisting with the distribution of boxes and training recipients to use their new equipment. The photos from this deployment are beautiful (below and attached), and provide some of the first shots of the new Africa tent in wide use. Please be sure to pass this update along to your friends, colleagues, and ShelterBox and Rotary contacts.

ShelterBox Response Team member Mike Greenslade reports to HQ that tent distribution and training continues in Hargeisa with 480 tents issued to IDP families living in and around the capital. ShelterBox Response Team members and local volunteers have erected over 250 new Africa tents, at two completed campsites named ‘Kood-Buur’ and ‘26th June.’ Newly trained teams of local volunteers continue to build two further camps: ‘Mohammed Haybe’ and ‘Ahmed Dhagax.’ Mike comments, “Distribution has gone smoothly with those allocated a tent receiving a numbered ticket which they exchange in the grounds of the Ministry of RRR. Reserve tents have been issued to the elderly and disabled, who receive no state support, living outside the camps on a discretionary basis.” The third ShelterBox Response Team consisting of Adrian Sumner and Jens Pagotto from the UK and Mark Dyer from the USA will now oversee the completion of ‘Haybe’ and ‘Dagax’ camps and the distribution, training and fulfillment of the large ‘Ga’an Libah’ camp.

Mike adds, “There has been a lot of hard work from all parties involved and it’s been immensely satisfying to be able to help such warm and welcoming people. For some, this has been the first outside aid they’ve received. Somaliland’s low national budget means that there is no safety net for the vulnerable, and there are thousands more needy IDP’s spread throughout the country. I’m sure ShelterBox would be welcomed back with open arms.”
span>