Twelve minutes after Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake struck last year, Roswell resident Wayne Robinson was on the phone making arrangements to go there. Forty-eight hours later he was one of the first persons from any relief organization on the ground handing out supplies to thousands of Haitian victims.
Robinson, the owner of Roswell Home & Office Furniture, is a first responder for ShelterBox, a Cornwall, U.K.-based organization that since 2000 has provided shelter and supplies to more than 70 countries following more than 100 natural disasters. Each ShelterBox supplies include a tent for ten persons, water purification equipment, a cook stove, mosquito netting and other essential supplies. Highly trained ShelterBox first responders, such as Robinson, quickly get to the disaster scene to assess the situation and needs, distribute boxes and work closely with local organizations, international aid agencies and Rotary clubs worldwide. It was, in fact, through the Alpharetta Rotary Club that he first heard of ShelterBox and felt the calling.
"I was working with the Interact Club, which is like the high school version of Rotary, with a conference and there was someone talking about ShelterBox. I had gone on international service trips before with the Rotary Club and it just peaked my interest."
He applied and soon found himself among the first 12 U.S. participants on a nine-day ShelterBox "boot camp" where he was taught how to survive under simulated disaster conditions including staying healthy in unsanitary circumstances and interacting with desperate people and questionable government officials. "They teach you how to live with only the food and water you bring and to deal with people who are in physical and emotional trauma -- who may have lost everything they owned or their entire families. "
When he got the call about Haiti, he texted a fellow Rotarian in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and flew to the nearby Dominican Republic. He caught the last flight into Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The next day he started his assessment. "Haiti was my eighth deployment with ShelterBox and this was 10 times worse than anything else I had ever seen. I called ShelterBox headquarters and said this was going to be a long-term commitment."
Robinson stayed three weeks. Over the course of a year ShelterBox has had more than 60 volunteers in Haiti who distributed 30,000 tents, which essentially provided housing for 300,000 persons or one-third of all relief shelter in Haiti, said Veronica Brandon Miller, executive director of ShelterBox USA, which is located in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Robinson, she said, is "inspiring, amazing, a real spitfire. When he got the call for Haiti, he had no hesitation. He’s prepared, and it’s not just him. He has his business organized so he can leave for a deployment." A first responder "never knows that they’ll be getting into," she said, but "Robinson handles it all very well. He’s also diplomatic when dealing with the people, government officials and other relief groups. He’s a true humanitarian."
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