ShelterBox Provides Aid to the Lake Chad Basin

Keefe Gorman is a managing director and investments and wealth advisor at Merrill Lynch in Ithaca, New York. In addition to his work at Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman contributes to many nonprofits and charities, including ShelterBox.

Based on the belief that shelter is a basic human right, the nonprofit ShelterBox began in the United Kingdom and has since grown to become a global organization that brings help directly to those families that need it.

Since 2009, ShelterBox has been working in the Lake Chad Basin of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad, a region that has been harmed by the violence of the extremist group Boko Haram. This area is also stricken by the impacts of climate change, as well as poor resource management. Lake Chad was once one of the largest freshwater lakes in Africa but has shrunk by 90 percent since the 1960s. The area is also one of the hottest places on the planet.

Approximately 17 million people live in the basin region. Of those, 10.7 million people are in need of aid and 2.4 million have been forced to leave their homes with nothing. ShelterBox has provided shelter and other resources, such as kitchen sets, tool kits, water carriers, solar lights, and blankets, to 11,000 families so far. To learn more about their efforts, visit www.shelterboxusa.org.