Written by: Nitin Kenny, email:
, Emergency Management Coordinator, ADRA India
Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA) INDIA has been a partner with Sphere India for the past six years. ADRA representatives have attended the various coordination meetings and workshops organized by Sphere India.
Needs Assessment: The coordination meetings regarding the needs assessment at the occurrence of a disaster has been extremely informative. Sphere India collaborates with various NGOs and thus the information gathered and shared during these meetings are valuable. ADRA INDIA has benefited from the information dispensed.
Proposal Writing: The guidelines of Sphere are beneficial during proposal writing. It is helpful in deciding on the intervention items when providing relief to a particular disaster. Thus, ADRA makes the proposal after the needs assessment analysis, in coordination with the sphere guidelines.
Implementation: The guidelines of how to treat victims and respect their rights has been a tremendous assistance to ADRA. The quality and accountability from ADRA towards humanity has been considerable due to the Sphere handbook which was a beneficial tool. The response from the victims has been overwhelming. They were very grateful for the relief provided and the methods used to implement the project, right from the selection of the beneficiaries to the distribution of the intervention items.
Training of trainers: The meetings provided intensive training regarding the ways to get information, the criteria to select the beneficiaries, methods to be used during the implementation, coordination with other NGOs etc.
Sphere India has constantly emphasized the need to collaborate with other NGOs. It is always advantageous when various NGOs collaborate, share information and work together as it reduces duplication and increases effectiveness. Sphere has readily initiated this idea on numerous occasions.
An illustration of how ADRA India was able to best make good use of Sphere in one of its Relief operations:-
ADRA India responded to the Rajasthan Floods in Barmer on 10 September 2006. This project was a great success with the help of Sphere and its coordination committee. The unexpected floods in the desert region of Rajasthan had us slightly unnerved due to unavailable resources for immediate assessments. Thus based on the reports of the media and news we were able to have a fair idea of the situation, but in terms of relief pouring in it was absolutely difficult to figure out the exact need of the hour. It was then that Sphere had its coordinating meeting in Jaipur and Jodhpur.
Our local representative was present in those meetings and was encouraged to make full use of the support that Sphere offered through its coordination meetings. The needs were immediately identified and the target area was also identified. Thus with the support of the local government and the local panchayat – ADRA was able to immediately assist in the Rajasthan flood victims with shelter needs in the district of Barmer at a place called Kawas. Tarpaulins for Blankets were distributed to flood affected victims based on Sphere guidelines and the victims were truly blessed. ADRA India was able to cater to 2400 beneficiaries.
ADRA continues to use the Sphere guidelines and resources in various aspects of our projects. It has been helpful in increasing the overall effectiveness of the quality of our projects.
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