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I mentioned yesterday that Shawn and Paul were headed into the field to hand out the non-food family disaster relief kits to families in need. For those of you who donated, he was able to post cameraphone images of those he gave the kits to. If you’ve been following him on Twitter, you’ve already seen some of these images.

Shawn and Paul have come back from the disaster area and were able to give us a brief update on YouTube.

Even though they’re back, it’s not too late to donate which you can do by clicking here.

Thank you once again to everyone who’s donated and shown your support on YouTube and Twitter. This really couldn’t have been possible without you guys.

- Morgan

Since Shawn and his friend Paul are armed only with their cellphones while in the field, this blog post is brought to you by flawedartist.

After close to a week and a half of searching for a way to bring aid to those displaced by Cyclone Aila, Shawn’s only a few short hours away from delivering over 45 non-food family disaster relief kits to families in need.

What makes this trip unique is the fact that Shawn has been able to share Mobile vlogs, Cameraphone images, along with updating Twitter to give everyone real time coverage of this weekend journey. It’s amazing to think that within 72 hours of donating, I will be able to see the smiling faces of those I’m helping.

Words cannot describe how amazing that feeling is.

While Shawn has already uploaded several mobile vlogs to YouTube, you can watch his latest mobile vlog here:

… and this is only the beginning. Please be sure to check back, as I’ll be updating you guys again once he makes it to the main relief site.

If you are interested in buying a kit that Shawn will be giving to those in need, you may do so here. These kits include:

• 1 Family-sized mosquito net (7 x 5 ft)
• 1 blanket (7 x 5 ft)
• 1 tarpaulin (plastic sheet you can use as a roof 30 x 5 ft)
• 1 bucket
• 1 pitcher
• 1 mug
• 1 bar of soap

I would like to thank everyone who has donated so far, specifically two of my good friends Andrei and Russ.

The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems. Back in 2007, I was in a car on the way to Southern Bangladesh. Cyclone Sidr had just hit and I was going to see how I could help.

Now here I am: it’s 2009, I’m in another car, heading to Southern Bangladesh, to try and help in the aftermath of another cyclone.

I don’t know what to expect. I’m reassured, somewhat, by the significantly lower death toll. It’s in the hundreds, not thousands. Small condolence if you’ve lost a loved one though.

There are a couple of things different this time though. First, I’m traveling with a friend this time. Hopefully this will be less of a solitary journey compared to my work during Cyclone Sidr. Also, it’s not just by money this time. With online donations, there is already enough funds to provide emergency non-food assistance to 45 families.

If you want to chip in, you still can here. I can monitor incoming donations from the field.

I haven’t updated this blog as often as I used to – but that doesn’t mean you can’t get regular updates from me. Thanks to an iPhone donated by some friends, I’m on Twitter almost all the time. I upload photos in real-time on Radar.net and I’ve also started mobile video blogging. The internet isn’t that great in Bangladesh – it takes about 30 minutes to upload a 30 second clip using the cell network here. But it’s better than nothing

You can check out all my mobile vlogs on my second channel http://youtube.com/thestudent. Below is one of my vlogs where I try and talk while fighter jets are flying overhead

Challenge Poverty video voting complete. Pond Sand Filter site has JUST been selected with Save the Children. Here are the villagers that will benefit: