A Portreath man has spent nine days of his own time witnessing the relief effort in one of the world's remotest areas.
Ken Wilkins, of Green Lane, who is a police inspector based at St Ives, travelled to the mountainous Kashmir region of Pakistan, witnessing first hand the scale of devastation caused by October's huge earthquake and assisting in the massive relief effort.
Mr Wilkins is also a member of the Rotary Club whose renowned Shelterbox initiative, instigated by Helston Rotary Club, has become a focus for scores of local fund raisers.
At a cost of nearly £500 each, every Shelterbox is packed and dispatched from their warehouse at the Water-ma-Trout industrial estate. Carried inside are a tent and sleeping bags for ten people, a shovel and tools, cooking aids, water purification equipment and other basic survival tools, even pencils and books for children. The difference they make is all too apparent from the positive feedback that has been received.
As well as the massive donations and very hard work of those involved in the operation at Helston, including many volunteers who turn up regularly to help with packing, another contributory factor is the work of the Rotary Club's 4R teams (standing for Rotary, Reconnaissance, Review and Recover) which fly out to disaster zones with the boxes to ensure the aid is deployed to those who need it most. Mr Wilkins is a member of a 4R team.
During his stay in the country he assisted in the distribution of sufficient Shelterboxes and additional tents to provide shelter to approximately 10,000 people. Overall the Shelterbox operation in Pakistan provided tents and the equipment listed to approximately 90,000 people. Now back in Cornwall, he said: "This part of Pakistan is a remote but beautiful area and looking out over a valley all that was left of the vast majority of homes were the roofs as the walls had just collapsed. "Some areas were totally devastated; we were shown one area which had seen a massive landslide in which an estimated 1,800 bodies were buried in the rubble.
"Each day our brief was to distribute boxes to those we had allocated them to the day before, and then go with a Kashmiri guide .... to visit more villages."
Rotary had a logistics team working at Islamabad airport getting the gear out to both other teams and this was essential as there was an incredible amount of red tape to overcome.
But there were also unorthodox means of getting aid to where it was needed: "It wasn't unusual to see men in their 60s arrive wearing just sandals, and then put the Shelterbox on their back, with a strap around their forehead tied to both sides of the box, before walking back several miles across the mountains to their families."
Mr Wilkins first became involved in the project after speaking with a colleague in the police who is also a 4R team member and he then helped pack boxes at the warehouse near Helston. He was then offered the opportunity to train to be a member of the 4R team. Just a week after completing an induction weekend he was offered a deployment to Pakistan replacing another team member who had to come back to the UK.
"Being a member of the 4R team is a great opportunity to see that the equipment fund-raisers work so hard to pay for, ends up going to the right people," said Ken. "Having done some packing I must admit that it was a pretty good moment seeing a string of green boxes going down the mountain on people's backs or hung between poles." Following his trip Inspector Wilkins would like very much to give talks and presentations to any groups interested in hearing more about Shelterbox. Ken added that groups can be any size or age, including children. Insp Wilkins can be contacted on 01736 792733. To make a donation, volunteer or for more information on Shelterbox visit www.shelterbox.org or telephone 01326 569782.
