South Shore man helps people facing disasters around the world

Friday morning 10 a.m.: Phone call comes in to the Evans home in Round Hill, Nevada. There is major flooding in the country of Malawi and his help is needed.

Friday afternoon 3 p.m: Ryder Evans is on a plane to the African nation for at least a two week stay.

The phone call came from Shelter Box, the international agency that provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to communities around the world who are overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis. Since its beginning, Shelter Box has responded to over 250 disasters and humanitarian crises in almost 90 different countries and provided emergency aid for well over one million people.

One of those volunteers providing that aid is Ryder Evans from the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.

As a member of the Shelter Box Response Team (SRT), Evans can be called to any country facing disasters at any time. A Shelter Box typically includes a disaster relief tent for a family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets and children’s activity pack. All of this comes in one large box and at any time there could be thousands of them in use around the world.

Evans and his fellow SRTs will go into countries, scout out suitable land to place the temporary homes, and then set them up. But it's not always that simple and not all countries greet them with open arms.

The logistics of getting these boxes into other countries can be problematic. Some foreign airports want to charge hefty fees, but since Shelter Box was originally a Rotary Club project in England, the Rotary name can break through many barriers. After they make it through customs the boxes then have to find their way to the disaster, which isn't always easy.

Once SRTs get the Shelter Boxes to the region they are needed, the team sets them up.

"The most gratifying experience I've had so far was in Brazil," said Evans. "I was a member of the scout team to evaluate space to set up 100 tents. After we cleared the area a man comes to us, seemingly from nowhere, asking for help. He says to us 'I'm from a small village 45 minutes away and we aren't getting any attention from the government and we need help." Ryder and his partner went over to the man's village the next morning. He said the community hit them with a full court press with videos of the flood, talked of how their town used to look, and showed the pictures of the almost 40 families without a place to live. The families were all living in the school so kids weren't able to attend classes.

The two SRTs came back to the hard hit town with 36 tents, set them up and built latrines. The students were able to return to school and take their needed exams for college.

"It's great that we can see a problem and solve it and not worry about bureaucratic issues," continued Evans.

So far, he has been deployed to the Philippines twice, Brazil once as well as the recent trip to Malawi.

Malawai was a different experience according to Evans. "It was more of a reconnaissance mission since it was a complex environment with multiple disasters going on," he said. "There were needs of food as well as shelter."

The process of becoming a trained SRT isn't a quick and easy process. Evans, as well as other prospects, attend a three day training course in the United States. Those that pass this portion (12 of 16 passed in his group) then go to England for a grueling nine day evaluation where they always always "on" for 24/7. This portion involves problem solving, sleeping in adverse conditions and always being ready to move. Needless to say, not all pass this part either.

Evans is teamed with other English speaking people from the U.S., England, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, France and Canada. He says he'll never know who he'll be teamed up with until he lands in the foreign country.

Shelter Box asks for a minimum commitment of one deployment a year, but those that are retired can make several trips a year. Most are needed for two weeks at a time but they can be asked to stay in the field for three weeks.

On one of his trips to the Philippines, Evans had to reply on help from South Lake Tahoe. They didn't have good internet on the islands after the torrential rains and wind but he was able to get a message to then Tahoe Douglas Rotary President Todd Poth (Evans is also a Past-President of the club). He and hundreds of Shelter Boxes were stuck on a dock and they couldn't get to the outlying islands where help was needed the most. The phone call to Tahoe resulted in a C130 Hercules cargo plane picking up the boxes in Cebu City and delivering them.

Helping people in stressful conditions is something Evans is used to in Lake Tahoe since he a team leader on Douglas County's Search & Rescue Team as well as a rescue member for El Dorado County's Search & Rescue.

Ryder and his wife Dawn have been married for 20 years, 18 of those have been spent on the South Shore. They have two children, Chris (16) and Madison (14). They both attend Whittell High School.

For more information on Shelter Box, visit their website. For about $1,000, a box can be created and delivered to those needing them. Several boxes donated by Lake Tahoe locals have already helped in Haiti, South America and Africa.