Tuesday 06 July 2010
First tents set up in Brazil after floods
One of the families in Barreiros who moved into a ShelterBox tent yesterday. Photograph: Tom Lay
Families in Brazil are now in secure shelter for the first time since losing their homes in unprecedented flooding but there is still a 'crying need' for emergency shelter.
200 ShelterBoxes arrived in Recife, Brazil on Sunday, July 4 and have now been distributed in the town of Barreiros in the state of Pernambuco. Families who have had no shelter since their homes were destroyed in the flooding are now living in ShelterBox tents.
ShelterBox Response Team members Pat Prendergast (UK), Phil Duloy (UK), Tom Lay (UK), Jodie Hurt (UK) and John Cordell (US) are working with local Rotarians and state officials to ensure the most effective distribution of the ShelterBoxes.
Speaking from Barreiros, Pat Prendergast said: ‘Yesterday we set up two camps, one of 169 tents and a second, on higher ground, of 31 tents. We’ve been working with the local authorities who have set up electricity, toilet blocks and access to fresh water.
‘There’s still people sleeping on the streets and there’s an absolute crying need for shelter, more so than anything else. As far as we’re aware, we’re the only aid organisation active in the area.’
A further 200 ShelterBoxes will arrive in Brazil on Monday, July 12 and will be distributed in Branquinha, a town in the state of Alagoas immediately.
ShelterBox Head of Operations, John Leach, added: ‘The team in Brazil and the Rotarians they’re working with have done an absolutely incredible job.
‘We’ve never been able to deliver aid into Brazil before and their work with the state officials has been fundamental in allowing us to deliver aid to people who are in desperate need. We’re packing more boxes at ShelterBox HQ and doing all we can to ensure more aid arrives imminently.’
The floods are an annual event in both Pernambuco and Alagoas but this year's are on a scale not seen before.
The below images show the scene in Brazil:
