Caritas India convened an unprecedented meeting of faith inspired organisation to deliberate on the role of Faith Based Organisations (FBOs), Faith Inspired Organisations (FIOs) and Local Faith Communities (LFCs) towards building the resilient communities during disasters on May 16, 2017 at India International Centre, New Delhi.

Since time immemorial, religious or faith based organisation had always offered shelter, food and spiritual support to the people affected by disasters, conflicts or war. The aim of this meeting to design a road map and activate a task force of all the FBOs to complement each other at the time of adversity.

At Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) 2005-2015, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-2030, efforts have been made at various levels to take advantage of the unifying power of faith by exhorting to religious leaders from all religions to impress upon their followers to create greater awareness on mobilising community participation for the achievement of the objectives of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Development Goals at the local, provincial, national, regional and global levels.

Being the major force in the community, it was also suggested to organize and influence the faith leaders to play a vital role in influencing communities on Disaster Risk Reduction.

All FBOs should institutionalise the “apply compassion” in practice and become an integral to the policy making.

Building the resilience of communities must be our overarching priority, said Vinod Menon, a former member of National Disaster Management Authority.

The proposed network would build community resilience, create public awareness, conduct mock exercises and do joint assessments and programs during disasters, shared Fr. Paul Moonjely, Deputy Director of Caritas India.

Next round of meeting will be called with many other organisations to take consensus on forming a network of network (independent of any other network) of all the FBOs.

The meeting was attended by Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, Caritas India, Islamic Relief, Brahma Kumaris, Bharat Soko Gakkai, Mata Amritananda Mayi Foundation, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, Muslim Aid, CASA, Vedic University, EFICOR, Save the Children, CARE, Sphere India and Government and non-government stakeholders, professors, students and media representatives.