Your Impact in 2023

With your help, we delivered responses across the world, each with a unique combination of aid to ensure we delivered the most appropriate and useful aid to the people who need it. From emergency shelter aid to essential household items, we worked with people to understand what they needed most, tailoring your aid accordingly. For example, providing bespoke winterization kits to places like Ukraine and Morocco that were hit with bitterly cold temperatures, and providing cash support alongside shelter support in Pakistan, Ukraine, and Ethiopia to provide more autonomy to those who lost their businesses and livelihoods.

Samira was at home alone in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco when the earthquake struck. She still remembers the terror of that night.

“I was thinking about death, I was crying, and I was thinking about my children. I really think about this night, and what happened.”

One of Samira’s biggest fears after the earthquake was the approaching winter, and how to keep warm. “Everyone is just outside; we do not have any houses to keep warm in. It is very cold, especially at night. After the earthquake everything has changed, before everyone had homes to keep warm in, now we do not have that.”

ShelterBox provided emergency shelter and other essential items to over 4,000 after the earthquake, despite difficult access to the mountains. Samira received a tent, solar lights, kitchen set, and warm blankets.

Thanks to your support, Samira had items she desperately needed to survive the winter. “The ShelterBox tent will help a lot. For our kitchen, the cooking sets will be very helpful. We need the solar lights because what we have now is not enough, and we need the blankets to keep warm.”

Nurta previously farmed crops to sell. However, after years of drought in Somalia she and her family were evicted. They then faced a long journey to Baidoa to find aid and shelter.

“Our journey was quite challenging; we had been struggling for three months [before arriving here]. As we were traveling, we did not have much food and water and when we arrived, some of my children were admitted to the hospitals because of malnutrition.”

Nurta and her family now live in a new shelter, which they received along with kitchen utensils and other essentials. Nurta has shared what the help means to her and her family.

“Now, we are fortunate to live in a spacious house, which is a significant improvement over the previous one. Before moving here, we felt uncertain about our future, and the fear of being forced to move again loomed over us. This new shelter provides us with stability, as we have been guaranteed to remain here for at least four years.”

Nurta now looks forward to a brighter future, where her children receive an education. She also wishes to learn to sew and dye fabric to earn a living and contribute to camp life. Her aspirations for stability, education, and self-sufficiency underscores the strength of people who have been left without shelter after disaster, all over the world.