Caritas India received the Asian Local Leaders for Disaster Resilience (ALL4DR), 2022 Award on 20th September 2022 in Brisbane, Australia. The award was presented by the UN Representative for DRR to Fr. (Dr.) Paul Moonjely, the Executive Director of Caritas India in a public function.

The award is given to the local champions who are working towards reducing risk in their communities. The objective aims towards recognising, linking and enhancing the power of local leadership”. The recipients of this award are selected by an international jury.

Fr. Paul at this moment shared about Caritas India’s ‘Disaster Clinic’ intervention after the devastating floods in Kerala which fostered a decentralised bottom-up approach to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through participatory and community-driven micro-intervention across the sector. This approach has helped in improving first responders’ capacity & strengthened the Community-based Disaster Risk Reduction mechanisms. He also shared the braving stories of the fisherfolk community during the Kerala flood who saved thousands of lives.

The award ceremony brought together local leaders, dignitaries and colleagues from across the sector to celebrate the spirit of local leadership. Apart from Fr. Paul, other local champions who received this award were, Ms. Anna Katrina Aspuria from Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), Mr. Doddy Kaliri from Difabel Disaster Response Taskforce (DIFAGANA), Indonesia and Ms. Joanne Murrell from Anglicare, Australia. These local champions shared their journeys of working on disaster resilience within their communities. These champions have been selected from several strong nominations from across the region.

This award is a part of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR), 2022 hosted by the Australian Government and convened by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) at Brisbane, Australia from 19 – 22 September. The conference reviewed different efforts to prevent new and reduce existing risks, and for countries and organisations to make actionable commitments against the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.