We are project partners with Rotary International, a global community of 1.4 million neighbours, friends, leaders and problem-solvers. Their aim is to create positive, lasting change in communities at home and all over the world.
By working together with Rotary, we are able to collaborate and combine resources to ensure that we can support more communities in desperate need of shelter after disaster.
Rotarians and Rotary groups across the world support us in a variety of ways, from raising funds and awareness to providing support on the ground during our response to a disaster. This enables us to work more effectively and reach more communities around the world.
Project partners
ShelterBox began in 2000 as a Cornish Rotary Club’s millennium project. With the support of Rotary members and clubs around the world, ShelterBox grew to become an internationally recognised, independent disaster relief organisation. Since 2012, ShelterBox and Rotary have been official Project Partners in disaster relief.
Each year, Rotary helps us to go further, support more people and access areas that would otherwise be impossible to reach. Read what we achieved in partnership across 2023 here.
Read the impact reportThe partnership between Rotary and ShelterBox has provided a place of refuge to people facing some of the most difficult and uncertain moments in their lives.
– John Hewko, General Secretary of Rotary International
ShelterBox Action Toolkit
Are you a Rotarian or club leader? Visit our Action Toolkit, a resource centre for Rotarians looking to support ShelterBox. You’ll find a wealth of information and resources, to keep your club informed and inspire your wider community.
Visit the toolkit
On the ground
When disaster strikes, Rotary is beside us – from the earliest planning stages to final evaluations, our partners help us to make contacts on the ground, organise logistics, and reach remote communities who might otherwise go without.
In 2016 Sri Lanka experienced a cyclone that caused major torrential rain fall and landslides. The Rotary Club of Capital City in Columbo, were able to help with transportation, translation and liaising with the Ministry of Disaster Management and local authorities.
In 2018 following widespread flooding in Bangladesh, Rotary contacts were instrumental in enabling ShelterBox to respond by arranging official permissions, organising permits and facilitating access to areas of the country that would otherwise have been impossible to reach.
Partnership in action
Watch our latest video with an introduction from ShelterBox Trustee and Past Rotary International Vice President, Yinka Babalola to learn more about what we do, and why it’s more important now, than ever before.
Since our inception in 2000, ShelterBox has responded to disasters in the Philippines more than in any other country, and we have worked together with Rotary in every response. In 2017 we took a natural next step in collaboration to create ShelterBox Operations Philippines.
Find out more about the Rotary Project Partnership and the ShelterBox Philippines in-country office with this film.
Our partnership with Rotary has been instrumental in our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the Ukraine crisis, understanding the situation on the ground and getting aid to those who need it most.
In this video, Steph Christensen, Director of ShelterBox Canada, talks about the huge benefit of ShelterBox’s close partnership with Rotary.
ShelterBox is working in the Afar region of Ethiopia to support internally displaced people
As part of our long-term Rotary engagement plan in Ethiopia, ShelterBox and Rotary conducted a pilot project with our partner, IOM. Seven Rotaractors were identified to join the distributions in Afar alongside the ShelterBox team. The volunteers assisted our distribution of aid items to support people there in various ways, including delivering aid to households with persons with a disability.
