Editors Note: This is one in a series of articles highlighting Rotary projects around the world.
In a Rotary-supported initiative, thousands of tents that help provide protection from the elements have been distributed to people in the UK who are homeless. The lightweight one-person tents, which cost about $40 each, are intended as a short-term solution for vulnerable people in cold and wet weather. “The very first time we showed the Sleep Pod to anyone outside our small circle was when we showed it to Rotarians,” says Justin Devereux, who co-founded the Sleep Pod charity with two friends.
The Rotary Club of Erdington and other District 1060 clubs provide financial support, and hundreds of Rotarians and other volunteers joined a push during the pandemic to assemble pods at home to increase the available stock. “While people still die on our streets and in our fields from hypothermia and exposure, Sleep Pod will do all we can to support people as they sleep underneath the stars,” says Devereux, “for whatever reason they find themselves there.”