“European Union Aid Volunteer trained under Peach project are very helpful during disaster response,” shared Caritas Nepal team with the Indian counter parts of Caritas India. The professional profile of the volunteers helps the response team to act immediately to conduct assessment and beneficiary selection in the ground zero.

Fifteen-member finance and programme team from Caritas India visited Caritas Nepal for a two days’ exchange visit on Peach from August 24-25, 2017 to learn about the involvements of peach volunteers in humanitarian response. The exchange visit emphasized more on the engagement plan of Humanitarian aid workers during disaster and emergency.

Mr. Indra B. Nepali, Finance Manager and Mr. Naresh Maharjan, Finance Officer from Caritas Nepal interacted with the team and shared their experience of handling the Nepal earthquake relief and rehab and Peach programme. They also shared about other disasters such as Floods and Forest Fires, which is a manmade calamity in Nepal.

Emergency response during Nepal Earthquake 2015 was one of the biggest response from Caritas Nepal. The models and practices done during the response are still very practical which can be replicated. After disaster, Caritas Nepal supported people with unconditional cash transfer but with a difference. The amount was directly transferred to all the beneficiaries to bring transparency and accountability. Not a single targeted beneficiary was left behind in getting the support from Caritas Nepal.

“In the recent flood and landslides, we never experienced any difficulty in getting volunteers because of Peach programme”, said by Caritas Nepal team. These volunteers came forward to extend their services and contributed to raise the impact of the humanitarian response by professionally handling the situations without any difficulty.

Caritas Nepal had conducted Peach training at the partner level and formed more than 25 volunteers with each partner, who can support the partners during the times of emergency. Peach program helped them to improve their Financial system and procurement process. Under the programme, a toolkit is developed regarding expenditure, reimbursement and relevant documents to conduct the programme, the same has been oriented to the volunteers before entering the emergency.

Humanitarian Aid Peach workers are trained on Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) , Volunteer management and Cash transfer to engage in the field during the Rapid Needs Assessment and response. India team has also visited Nepal Earthquake 2015 Recovery project area in Balthali village where four sectoral (WaSH, Livelihood, Protection and Shelter) support were provided to the affected community. Community participation during the recovery phase plays a major role in the rehabilitation phase. Through the community participation, the first demo house was constructed for an Elderly Widow who lives alone, relying on Widow Pension scheme for her survival.

Sharing her insight about the peach programme in Nepal, Programme Officer of Caritas India, Catherine Kune shared that it is great to see that Caritas Nepal provides Peach TOT training to not only the Peach Volunteer but also to the staffs of Caritas Nepal.