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Groups send shelter to refugees

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Pre-K Sunday School children at St. John's Lutheran Church in Guttenberg are among those who learned about the refugee crisis and explored a ShelterBox on Refugee Sunday. (Photo submitted)

By Molly Moser

An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the March 2011 outbreak of civil war in Syria, precipitated by anti-government protests. There are over four million refugees, three quarters of them women and children, seeking safety and shelter across neighboring countries, and a startling 7.6 million people are displaced within the borders of their own country. Many are living in flimsy, cramped makeshift shelters, like chicken coops or abandoned sheds, with no heat or running water, and many are injured from continuous bombing and shelling.  

This means that whether or not they’ve escaped Syria, more than half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million is in need of humanitarian assistance. At this rate, the U.N. predicts there could be 4.27 million Syrian refugees by the end of 2015 — making this the worst exodus since the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago.

Without regular food and income, families are in desperate need of emergency shelter and other lifesaving supplies. St. John’s Lutheran Church in Guttenberg, Guttenberg Rotary International with their high school Interact group, and the president of Fidelity Bank are responding to the crisis. 

These local groups are working with ShelterBoxUSA to raise funds to purchase ShelterBoxes for international refugees. In July the Clayton Ridge High School Interact Group, sponsored by the Guttenberg Rotary Club, organized a 5K walk/run as a fundraiser for the purchase of a ShelterBox to be sent to those in need. "A ShelterBox provides shelter and life saving supplies to families in need - for example, when part of a country becomes overrun by a natural disaster. Each box costs $1,000," Interact president Brianna Finnegan told The Press. 

"Our Rotary Club gave $250.00, Interact Club raised $250.00,  G&G gave to us from Bender's food stand fund raiser, and a private donor gave the balance," said Janette Simon, Rotary president. The high school Interact group plans to make the 5K an annual event in hopes of purchasing more ShelterBoxes to send overseas. 

Dealing with difficult living conditions is one of many challenges refugees face. Over half of the refugees from Syria are under the age of 18, and most have witnessed horrific violence, losing family members and seeing their homes destroyed by bombs. As refugees in a foreign country, they’re typically without access to educational opportunities or simply the chance to play and make friends. Currently, 68 percent of Syrian refugee children and adolescents are out of school, and many have not seen the inside of a classroom in over three years. 

ShelterBox has sent aid to support over 5,000 families in Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan, Lebanon and Jordan, and has ensured distribution of aid like tents, mosquito nets, water filters, water carriers, blankets, groundsheets, SchoolBoxes and solar lamps. Each ShelterBox is tagged and can be tracked online, so supporters know exactly where each ShelterBox they sponsor is being used anywhere in the world.

“I learned about ShelterBox through my son, Matthew, who is a member of the Interact club at school,” said St. John’s pastor Shane Anderson. “We were looking for a way to support Syrian refugees and once we started talking about ideas, the ShelterBox kept coming up as a very meaningful way to give direct support to families affected by man-made and natural disasters.”

The St. John’s church council, outreach committee, youth and family committee, Sunday School, and Luther League groups are working together on this ongoing project. The church groups initiated the campaign with Refugee Sunday, a fundraising kick-off sponsored by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. Just one week later, they had already raised enough to fund two ShelterBoxes. “Our Sunday School children are now at about the 75% mark to fund a third,” Anderson told The Press last week. 

In early October, seventh and eighth grade religious education students explored what life is like for refugees. “We used a ShelterBox to build the tent, learned what mosquito netting is, how to purify water, and cooked some eggs on the stove using leaves as fuel,” said Anderson. That week, Sunday School students and St. John’s congregation got to see the tent and supplies displayed in the church narthex. Church leaders are teaching members about the ongoing worldwide refugee crisis.

“St. John’s is committed to serving locally, regionally and internationally, but this is not only a St. John's effort. We all like the fact that several groups in our community are also doing the same program. Just imagine how many lives the city of Guttenberg, Iowa is positively impacting around the globe through this project!” 

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