03/03/2014 Inside Out South West

stories from the south`west. Tonight, it's the Cornish

`` out there. But is ShelterBox still true to its name's I find

disaster? It is about emergdncy shelter within days of a disaster

and a commitment to help people in those first few days. And wd visit a

haven for winter wildlife. `` Dev one `` Devon

in connection `` arrested in connection with fraud. But the

charity is not under investhgation and

Newquay. This woman has just given birth, a baby girl born

birth when the house was ruloured around her. It was awful. They

haven't got the resources to help themselves with all of that

show. Wheat on the night

the international disaster charity just

And that has been the SheltdrBox ledge since the

in Helston 13 years ago. To deliver its

experienced fieldworkers. In 20 6, we feature the charity's machine in

Pakistan for #. Was in charge of the earthquake. Mark Pearson was in

charge of pence. We were in the Frontier province and Kashmhr. We

quickly, very effectively done. Mark was also on the ground withhn days

of tsunami. Every problem you could

come across, earthquakes, snow, what distributed quickly was alw`ys the

priority. It is first three or four days, m`ximum

ten to 15 days after the disaster. At that point, it is pretty much

finished, the emergency marketing. I know there are great in

Cornwall and the product out there. But last

year, ShelterBox was plunged into a crisis of its own. Its founder, Tom

Henderson, was arrested in connection

wrong and remains on police bail while enquiries continue. There

followed the typhoon, SheltdrBox reported it had

200 ShelterBoxes and 1500 tdnts But how does that compare with previous

an earthquake struck Haiti, ShelterBox, then

organisation, had within five weeks distributed 7000 boxes and tents.

That is several times the alount handed out

there were more challenging. Haiti and Typhoon Haiyan are

was very obvious immediatelx that when you flew stuff into thd

Somewhere like the Philippines, it is the sheer logistics moving

between islands. When I was there for two weeks, it took me nhne

flights to see three the exercise of saying, if we

airfreighted it, it takes away the cost of the tent.

was much early on , each aid was needed. We do not want to w`ste

donors' money by putting aid on could not have given enough.

ShelterBox is part of a much wider international response. We `re a

relatively features airfreighted. It does not

mention the usually slower sea Haiyan. That concerns some

ShelterBox's former partners. Until 2012, ShelterBox's Norway affiliate

Siegfried. We were told the main priority was send it by plaxing so

clear in publicity materials that not everything is sent by ahr

of going too fast. You have to think about the destruction of thd

infrastructure be to move things about in the

country. The last thing we do is create or contribute to

bottlenecks or local diffictlties. The concern illustrated by `nother

of ShelterBox's deployments before Alison joined. Its response to

Haiti earthquake in 2010 was the biggest in its history. But, as

these pictures distributed. In the Philipphnes

ShelterBox tents were due as late as last week, but how useful

are they after a catastrophd on this scale?

in November, four days after Typhoon Haiyan, it advised tents were

needed, the priority after that was

rebuilding homes. The communities that where they had had

some emergency needs met, stch as I tent and a tarpaulin, they were

saying, we want is still finding families for whom a

tent is a lifeline. The Philippines is

and we are seeing that it still has impact, but some amenities have not

been it delivers. P have specific

benefits but compared to kept like tarpaulins, they are high`v`lue

jealousy over who got what led to fears of violence against rdcipients

and charity workers. In a cdrtain context, if one group of hotseholds

get that Shelterbox and gets everything, and we collect

So, to what extent is Sheltdrbox my thinking outside the box? It is now

so`called sheltered kits, shmple tarpaulins and tools. On

Philippines. But there were nearly four times as many unboxed pence, as

well as thousands of individual items like solar lamps.

delivers outside emergency but some believe that the message donors are

given them closely enough rdflect the complex reality. I find it very

problematic that they are tdlling donors but this

three years to change their marketing,

delivering at jewel Shelterboxes. With the discontents `` the concerns

to Shelterbox. Their websitd changed.

always explain the different kinds of help it sends. It says changes to

their website or part of a donor trachea that this org`nisation

is the longer just about a box of kit delivered to

big fundraising effort in Atstralia. Its spokesman, Mike Greensl`de,

seemed sure all the money will go to the Philippines. In fact,

the Shelterbox website says that in the unlikely event of Sheltdrbox

raising more than a Shelterbox says that the end of last

year it had collected ?4.4 lillion guarantee it. Our intention is to

spend all the money that we have raised. We still can't predhct how

much we will end Shelterbox. Whatever they nded, we

will be happy to give. That Shelterbox looks to move

iconic box. Estuaries like this are gre`t havens

for winter beautiful estuary in Devon, where

instead of trying to build, It is home to some beautiful, but

Gifford in South Devon ` 60 The magic

threatened wildlife. of organism that is food for the

birds. It is pretty the oozing. This redshank is feeding

on the tide line as surface making them easy pickings.

On the grassy banks, this ctrlew is probing even deeper. Its longer bill

allows it to feed on a diffdrent with tidal flats that has a tide

ebbing and flooding twice a the reserve itself. It looks like

just a bit of wet grassland for the wildlife that would've used

the original salt marsh. Those very rare. Now, Devon Wildlhfe Trust

are trying to put some back. To do that they

sea wall controlled by this very clever tidal valve. We have a big

tube through the bank. sea water. We can control the sea

water echoes in there. This sea water floods into the naturd

there. We want the landscapd that we see out there to be replicated in

there, as it once was. We nded salt water to go in

wall as they are outside it. Salt marsh is

shrimps and, in turn, the bhrds that feed on them. This egret already

picking up the sea but `` to this sea wall in

the bombing? There was a for that. We used to spend time down

here swimming and catching lullets in the central canal,

at rain here all the time. Despite the best efforts

years the bird population started to go into decline.

flooding, things are coming back. The Sheldrake,

onto the River Avon and the mudflats. This is a great

types of shank, green and rdd. The greenshank in front is a much rarer

bird locally than the redsh`nk, with sandpiper. It's easy to spot at a

distance. No`one they bob all the time. It could be

to make them ragworm on the mudflats just by the

hide. Moving water overall bird numbers are well down,

though there are quite a For a keen birder like me, this is a

real highlight ` the curlew. Our largest wader and a beautiftl

and, thankfully, relatively common. This one is preening its fe`thers,

but it's a bit tricky with only a long bill and legs to use. Ht uses

its legs for the neck feathdrs then turns right round to rtb a

gland near its tail with So,

main body of feathers to kedp them So, not a bad morning bird watching.

OK, not something the Exe or Tamar estuaries, but a

nice intimate reserve with, if you are lucky, some real raritids like

the ibis. I love this reserve, not just because it is interesthng, but

because it is small and compact are into wading birds. Also, the

salt marsh, or the salt marsh that will be. Year in,

worth returning for. Our estuaries have always faced huge pressure

from. `` from man. They are where we want to

news that, 250 years on, ond small part of Devon is being at ldast in

part given back That is all for this week, `nd for

this series. We will be last year. A neighbour said she had

terrible screams on the