The Disaster Management Desk of Caritas India had organised a three day workshop on Humanitarian Perspectives and Sphere Minimum standards in a Disaster Response. The training was held in New Delhi, from July 5-8, 2010. The main objective of this workshop was to understand and institutionalize the perspectives and principles of Humanitarianism in disaster response.
Caritas India has successfully formed a national team for Emergency Response titled ‘ERST’(Emergency Response and Support Team). This team is a pool of members from the national and state offices of Caritas India. They are being introduced and trained on various phases cum sectors of an emergency response. Through this process, we are facilitating in developing the skills and knowledge base of our members in handling disasters. This workshop is a stepping stone in enhancing the knowledge of our ERST members about Sphere Standards and its usage in our emergency programs in order to improvise the quality of our interventions during emergencies. Sphere India has been associated with Caritas India in the capacity building of our partners and staff personnel. With this workshop, participants have well understood the Humanitarian perspective and principals. They are fully aware of the use of common minimum standards in different thematic sectors through the project management tenure. Our members have also developed a resource base of tools and methodologies to be used during different stages, the essence of Coordination during emergencies and how quality and accountability should be ensured even at the time of crisis.
Sphere India at the end of the workshop facilitated in helping us devise a response strategy that will be incorporated in our guidelines to ensure fast and easy flow of communication and program implementation.
-Babita