Barkat is 80 years old. He and his wife were home in the village of Shand in Pakistan when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region of Mashkail last month. They lost everything, their belongings and their house. They were forced to live in the open air as Barkat did not have the energy to build a shelter. They were exposed to the elements as well as insects. They were about to lose hope when Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) found them and gave them a ShelterBox disaster relief tent.

Khaled, his wife and three children fled Syria’s Homs five months ago when their home was hit by a rocket. He and his family were inside the building at the time. They survived and escaped across the border but Khaled says the children still have nightmares. They are now living in a ShelterBox tent in Akroum, just two kilometres from the border.

‘God only knows where we would be living if we didn’t have the ShelterBox tent,’ said Khaled.

ShelterBox tents are en route to help displaced families in Mashkail, an area in Balochistan Province in south-western Pakistan that has been the most affected by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which hit inside southern Iran near the Pakistan border on 16 April.

The violent tremors flattened much of Mashkail and the surrounding region including houses and shops. Media reports are saying national relief efforts have been delayed due to the isolation of the area.

Hurricane Sandy wreaked widespread devastation upon New York, USA but also left a trail of destruction through many islands in the Caribbean. Its timing could not have been worse either. Not only did Tropical Storm Isaac strike just a couple of months before but Haiti was, and still is, recovering from the 2010 earthquake that left over two million homeless and led to a widespread outbreak of cholera and food shortages. This complex environment made it challenging for the ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) that assessed the need following Sandy.

'This is the worst flood since 1978, although the population was not so dense then and the loss not so great,' said Colonal Miha from Madagascar's National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management agency (BNGRC). 'It's hard to imagine the hardship here unless you witness it with your own eyes; we have been barely surviving.'

Miha is talking to a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) about Cyclone Haruna, a devastating storm that hit isolated parts of southwestern Madagascar in February that caused lives to be lost and has affected almost 18,500 people.

Every year, World Water Day is held on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

World Water Day annually highlights a specific aspect of freshwater, this year being the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. It is important to recognise that cooperation is essential to strike a balance between the different needs and priorities and share this precious resource equitably, using water as an instrument of peace.

It's the two-year anniversary of the start of the Syria unrest. It began on 15 March 2011 with nationwide protests following arrests in the southern city of Deraa. Up to 70,000 people have been killed in Syria and over one million have fled their homes and are now left with nothing.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck 120 kilometres off Japan's northeastern coast, triggering a massive tsunami that caused catastrophic scenes of destruction across the districts of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Around 19,000 people lost their lives and about half a million were made homeless.

ShelterBox responded within 24 hours by having a team on the ground assessing the situation, and after several weeks, had distributed aid for tens of thousands of people.

ShelterBox is the first aid agency in the world to distribute tents to Syrian refugees in Lebanon with the permission of the Lebanese Government.

In a complex political environment, ShelterBox is delivering thermally insulated tents to vulnerable families desperately in need through a network of 27 implementing partners that include Scout groups, municipalities and grassroots non-governmental organisations.