ShelterBox turns 25 in 2025

Right now, over 120 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes by disasters, conflict, and the climate crisis.

That’s compared to under 40 million people displaced by disaster when ShelterBox was founded in 2000.

Today, three times more people are affected – and the number is growing every day.

In the next 25 years, around 1.2 billion people could be at risk of losing their homes to disaster, too – that’s the same as 1 in 6 people alive today.

Extreme weather is getting worse, forcing more people to flee, damaging and destroying homes. New and long-running conflicts continue to force families to flee. Communities don’t have a chance to recover from one crisis to the next.

People need our support now more than ever.

Thanks to your support, we have been there for over three million people in around 100 countries. That’s about 300 people a day.

Our work has spanned Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania, Europe, and North America.

In Syria – our longest-running ongoing response – we’ve supported over 375,000 people since 2012 due to ongoing political unrest and conflict.

As climate crises have become more common in the United States, ShelterBox has been there from Hurricane Katrina to the Los Angeles wildfires.

We respond as many times as people need us. That means we’ve helped in many places more than once.

In the last 25 years, we’ve been there for 300,000 people in the Philippines, as climate change has made them more vulnerable– responding to more than 30 disasters.

We’ve helped ten times in Pakistan and Indonesia. Six times in Niger, Somalia, Kenya, Haiti, and Afghanistan. Five times in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sudan, Madagascar, Paraguay, Colombia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Mexico.

Together, we can do more. Help us be ready for the next 25 years.

When disasters strike without warning, emergency shelter can be the difference between life and death. Being prepared means we are ready and can reach people more quickly and efficiently.

Your support now can help us be ready in the future.

Help us have shelter aid ready to go in warehouses around the world. Together, we can make sure more people have emergency shelter and other essential items to survive and recover because shelter is the foundation for life.

Over the last 25 years, we’ve listened to communities to understand what they need the most after disaster. Every situation is different, so our responses need to be too.

A tent isn’t always the right option after a disaster. So we have different approaches and emergency shelter items for different climates and cultures – and we train communities on how to get the most from them.

We still offer tents and shelter kits, but now we have more robust emergency shelters, too.

In 2000, members of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard in Cornwall came up with the idea for ShelterBox.

After watching the news and seeing that people were left with nothing after disaster, the club members wanted to do more.

Discover how ShelterBox has grown from a group of passionate volunteers wanting to help 8 to 10 families a year to helping over 3 million people.