'Awkward' Navy staff aid trainees

ShelterBox delivers aid to areas hit by natural disasters

Royal Navy personnel are turning off the charm to help to train new charity recruits in Cornwall.

Staff at RNAS Culdrose have been told to be as awkward as possible when dealing with SherlterBox trainees.

The aim is to teach volunteers how to cope with some of the bureaucratic challenges they are likely to face when delivering aid overseas.

The training is part of an exercise scenario featuring an earthquake on the Lizard peninsula.

The "refugee" site is located at Predannack Airfield.

Survival equipment

Personnel from 771 Naval Air Squadron will help to deliver resources to the team at the airfield. They will also give volunteers a safety briefing in case they have to work with helicopters in disaster zones.

ShelterBox was founded in June 2000 by Tom Henderson of Rotary Club Helston-Lizard.

The charity uses large green plastic boxes to send vital survival aid to countries around the world which have been devastated by natural disasters.

The boxes, which cost £490, include a 10-man tent, sleeping bags, cooking stove and utensils, tool kit, plastic bags and water purification tablets.

ShelterBox volunteers are currently working in Nepal, where an estimated 70,000 people have been displaced by severe flooding. More than 200 boxes of aid have been sent to the country.