Building sustained nationwide participation - pre/post disaster
Country: India
Organization: GOONJ
2) Sector of activity: Urban/rural planning Creating a network which works through out the year
3) Description of your products or services: For the past 7 years GOONJ has successfully built a network of reliable grassroot organizations like Panchayats,NGOs, activists in the villages.In the metros we have a similar network of individuals,corporates,schools,collages and other organizations working actively throughout the year to channelise unutilized resources lying waste in the cities to the rural areas. At the time of disasters this strong urban and rural network is activated intensely to address the needs of the victims in a focused manner.This helps address specific needs for the disaster hit, without burdening any single organization/individual. Like at the time of tsunami our appeal in the city schools for 2kg of rice & tea from each student resulted in generating truck loads of material. On the other hand our partner grassroot agencies give us an accurate assessment of the damage and the needs of the disaster hit people.They become the critical last leg in the distribution chain, and as part of the community sensitively deal with the issue of giving with dignity. With years of continuous work this network helps us gather intelligence and information about disaster patterns and in disaster preparedness, in terms of generating and reaching relief material to disaster prone areas well in time. In monsoons parts of India are prone to floods, so we start our RAHAT FLOODS campaign before monsoons so that the material reaches these areas quickly.
4) Description of innovation: The innovative aspect in our approach is the building of a reliable and time-tested network in both the rural & urban areas.This network means our wide spread presence,which helps us respond to any kind of geographical and cultural aspect.With an active network in place,our response time for generating & channelising resources becomes much quicker than any other organisation.Despite being a small team,we have been able to respond to disasters as wide apart as Kashmir and Tamil Nadu,with the same amount of urgency and scale.We work throughout the year on educating the common masses about the sensitivities of giving at the time of disasters i.e how one should understand the cultural,social,geographical aspects before deciding what to give.Like women in south India don’t wear suits while women in Kashmir don’t wear saris or eating habits-people in Gujarat don’t eat rice much while in Kashmir rice is a part of the staple diet.Sensitivities towards these aspects has a big impact at the time of material generation.This has a two pronged long term effect,first-instead of relying only on big funding agencies,we are able to involve common people in a big way and second, since we educate the donor,we are able to add dignity to the relief material.We always go to people with a strong message "disaster hit people were living a dignified happy life before these disasters so while helping we should not rob them of their dignity when they have lost everything else."
5) Description of the financial model: In the last 7 years, we have grown largely by self- generated income and voluntary contributions by involving the masses In disasters, instead of money we stress on services which has resulted in a wide network of transporters, suppliers and other agencies who immediately start helping us free or in highly subsidized rates. We give specific targets to schools,corporates,residents associations- like in a school, every child will bring 2 kg of rice or from one corporate we need mats and from other we need utensils.We motivate people to give just 10% as cash to cover the logistical cost.People rely on us because we don’t talk about money only,we are happy because we are saved from the hassles of inviting quotations and settling bills and 10 % contribution and individual donations take care of the expenses.The entire operation becomes sustainable, involves everybody, remains transparent ,easy & clear and is not dependent on any funding agency or big financial support. It gives a chance to serve to every stakeholder without much financial burden.By spending just 3 lac rupees,we generated material worth 15 million rupees in tsunami is a clear example of strength of this approach.
Client fees represent this approximate percentage of operational budget: 0%
6) Key operational partnership: Our existing rural and urban network of partner organizations is the backbone of our model. We have a strong network of over 100 agencies-local NGO’s, Panchayats, Ashoka Fellows, community leaders and SHG which become our hands, eyes and ears at the time of disasters. In the cities we work with corporates, schools, colleges,NGOs, small businesses, resident welfare associations and on individual level- housewives, professionals, retired people, school children. In Tsunami we are working with the local government and for kashmir earthquake we are working closely with the Indian Army and Air Force. Every part of the society is involved in the process, whether it is spreading awareness, collecting material, sorting, packing or distributing, individuals and organizations play a vital role. A very good example of the level of partnership is our over 35 collection centers, which are the houses of volunteers or partner schools who support our initiatives for education in disaster hit areas where every child contributes for one effected child means an urban school is able to help many rural schools to come back from the effect of disaster and resume studies.
7) State of implementation:
We are at the Scaling Up stage. Right from the beginning, channelising unutilized urban resources to rural India has been our main focus.In the disasters over the years we have intensified our model to address special needs with an emphasis on filing up the gaps in the supply and demand of relief efforts and material. This aspect has been fine tuned over the years with the help of a robust communication channel with our partner organizations.We are already in working in 14 states with over 100 partner groups. Having started with 67 personal clothes, today we send out more than 10 thousand kgs of material every month. This quantity becomes many fold at the time of any disaster, an indication of how quickly our network responds to disasters. The scaling up is happening in more than one way not only in India but many organsiations in Nepal, Srilanka, Thailand have shown great interest in replicating our model.
What institutions, communities, populations or geographic areas have benefited most from your product/service? Although our network does not cover the entire geographical area but in the event of a disaster the extended network of our local partners is a great help.An example is our relationship with the Indian army for working in the villages and schools of Surankote , terrorism hit border area of Kashmir.When it was hit by the earthquake recently, this small relationship helped us reach the worst affected areas very quickly as they passed on contacts of local officials, helped us in transporting material and asked their officials to contact us.The Army gave us information about the damage and needs,gave us security in the sensitive and the far flung areas.We were able to get a first hand account of the state of affairs and assess and identify our role in the relief operations. Similarly in tsunami to reach the coastal areas the local network of a partner played an active role.
What specific partnerships do you need to be successful? Disaster is a time of complete breakdown at the individual and community level therefore collaborations and cooperations are needed in every sphere .We need more volunteers to spread awareness, organise camps & sort material. Corporates in the travel, pharma, housing, food,garments and media industry to get involved.We need relationships with sincere NGOs, community leaders in the most far-flung areas to partner with us & a bigger and more sustained campaign to sensitise people living in the metros, to the plight of people affected by annual disasters which are mostly ignored by the urban masses. For better disaster preparedness we need infrastructure at our command which will help us build a disaster reserve of relief material reducing our response times drastically.In short, we need to scale up our present network to spread wider and include more entities of the society.
8) Replication strategy or expectation:
What plan, if any, do you have for replicating your disaster strategy? What policy, legal or institutional constraints must be overcome for you to be successful?
GOONJ’s model is replicable in any part of the world, where there is an active democratic civil society.We have been talking to many organisations in different countries through various forums.People from Tsunami affected countries like have shown keen interest in the same.The challenge is to scale up the model to reach the most ignored gap areas in the relief efforts, the other challenge is to deal with misperceptions among the donors about the disaster hit. For example in the Kashmir earthquake, as in Tsunami relief efforts we had an uphill task in dealing with the misconception instigated further by the media; that the disaster hit people were not accepting old clothes. The awareness building about disasters among the urban masses is a challenging, significant and long-term task, which needs to be done keeping in mind the cultural and social sensitivities.
Which specific areas - and why - in your field would benefit most from investment by corporations, foundations, and other investors:
During the Tsunami relief work our funds of just Rs. 3.00 lac helped generate relief material worthRs. 15 Million. It goes to show that our model needs very low investment and gives very high results.What we need is strong linkages and commitments for specific items. We also need to work harder on material management and most importantly on awareness creation. We want corporations and investors to help us form linkages in specific important industries like airlines and transport industry, food and pharma industry. We need foundations and NGO’s having an expertise in areas with difficult access like Kashmir, north eastern India where they can act as our eyes, ears and hands.We need big schools and universities to work with us and activate their youth to mobilise a national momentum around any disaster.
9) The organization: How does the initiative fit with your overall organization's strategic goals and priorities? How did the initiative start?
Our basic philosophy is that the society mostly gives and gets involved at the time of a disaster but the fact is that a majority of the population lives in such a condition that one need not wait for a disaster to happen, to help them. Our emphasis is that one needs to actively work throughout the year in disaster preparedness and resource generation, sensitising people on the needs and dignity aspect, so that when the disaster actually happens, which could be anytime, we are able to better respond and are able to lessen to a large extent the after effects of devastation.
9a) Is there a social entrepreneur behind this idea?
Anshu K. Gupta, the founder Director of GOONJ is the driving force behind this initiative.Being brought up in a big family with limited resources taught him the relevance of recycling and reusing and making the most of little resources. His family traveled to various parts of the country. A brilliant and inquisitive mind, he studied journalism as well as Advertising & Public Relations from one of the premier Institute in India (IIMC), and then did a Masters in Economics. While still a graduate student in 1991, he traveled to Uttarkashi, North India after a major earthquake. Missing out on his classes, he lived in tents for days and helped in the relief efforts. This was his first real exposure to the problems of rural masses in far off parts of the country, something that shocked his urban sensibilities. After completing his studies, he joined the corporate sector. It was his longing to give back to society, do something different benefiting thousands and involving people participation that he started thinking on the idea. He ultimately left Escorts as Manager, Corporate Communications in 1998 to work full time on his idea.GOONJ, his dream for many years, was set up in the same year with the support of his wife and a few friends. From collecting clothes from his own house, relatives and friends and distributing them on the roads in the chilly winter nights of Delhi, his dream has come a long way. He travels extensively across the country trying to understand the needs of the people and building partnerships with organizations which is a big resource while dealing with any disaster. His idea is to create a wide network of systems, people, organisations, transporters & masses so that with or without disaster the deprived people keep getting the much needed material.
-
10) On the mosaic diagram, which of these factors is the primary focus of your work?
- Factor: Lack of scenario planning and preparedness
- Principle: Enable everyday changemakers to lead
Contact Information:
Name: Mr. Anshu K. Gupta - Founder Director
Organization: GOONJ
Mailing address: J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-76
Country: India
Email:
anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in
Tel: 91-11-26972351, 9868146978
Fax: 91-11-26972351
Website: www.goonj.info
Organization's legal status: Registered under societies act
Number of Employees: 15
|
Return to Home Page