Home in a Box

It sounded crazy when I first heard about it, then I read more and wondered why this hadn't been done before. It's called a "ShelterBox." Tom Henderson, an ex-Royal Navy search-and-rescue diver in the United Kingdom, came up with the idea in 1999 as he was watching news footage of relief supplies being dropped into a devastated region of the world. The box contains a tent, groundsheets, blankets, stove, cooking pots, utensils, water containers, purification equipment, tools, bag, rope, axe, shovel, hoe, a pair of mosquito nets, and a children’s pack. All that for US$1000. Click here to see the supplies.

The tent is larger than it appears in demo pics and actually has enough room for 10 people. This disaster relief program is affiliated with the Rotary Club and donations can be made to the effort on the ShelterBox website. There are versions of the site for a handful of different countries available through tabs at the top of the site, labeled by national flags.

For families who have lost everything through natural disasters or perhaps are refugees (didn't see that mentioned anywhere), a ShelterBox can mean life itself.

See also:
Home for 10 people ... in a portable box