Goonj Alliance for Rapid Response on Disasters (GARRD)
GARRD is an alliance initiated by Goonj to set up a formal cross-sectoral alliance of entities with pre-committed resources to positively impact the disaster response ecosystem and understanding. This solution is unique and first-of-its-kind globally, to bring together diverse entities involved, and those who must be involved, to create a transformative impact. Through this alliance, we hope to achieve a more comprehensive, coordinated, and collaborative bottoms-up approach to rapid and sustained disaster mitigation, relief, and rehabilitation.
WHY
GARRD?
WHAT IS
GARRD?
VALUES OF
GARRD
GUIDING
PRINCIPLES
WHY GARRD ?
- Disaster losses are increasing exponentially.
- India itself is one of the most disaster-prone areas of the world exposed to many natural hazards including
floods, cyclones, droughts, and earthquakes. - Both natural and man-made disasters cause tremendous loss of life and property-infrastructure.
- This leads to mounting expenses on relief and rehabilitation.
- Projections of disasters increasing every year are alarming.
WHAT IS GARRD ?
A Scalable Shovel-Ready Idea
A collaborative network of rural and urban stakeholders and actors created and working together in disaster and non-disaster times. It focuses on bringing disaster response into the mindset of each member of the alliance for their own organizational work and approaches. GARRD can be known as the ongoing collaborative process of listening, learning, and leveraging system-changing actions in non-disaster time to prepare for colossal damage and devastation. It taps into well-defined resource commitments in advance for disasters, by funders, community leaders, and other stakeholders
VALUES OF GARRD
- Ensure rapid deployment of resources where they are most needed
- Bring disasters and disaster response into the mindset of the society in non-disaster time
- Improve before we change… like old drugs are being repurposed for covid, similarly learn from past disasters and from grassroots innovators and communities who consistently repurpose available solutions and tools to make them more effective
- Give voice, visibility, and velocity to local creativity, collaboration, and compassion
- A process of constant learning and course correction (from disasters) on a systemic societal level.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Our goal is to increase the world’s resilience i.e its ability to adapt incrementally to changes that disasters are bringing.
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Unique Approaches
- Goonj has looked at every disaster as an opportunity to bring attention and resources to address the ignored issues and needs of the most neglected disaster hit communities.
- Our work has evolved into a reliable and time-tested, need based disaster relief & rehabilitation approach that engages a network of stakeholders in urban and rural India with a unique disaster Management Protocol that involves the masses across the country, sensitizing them for a rapid and better response to a disaster.
- Goonj tackles mismatch between what’s needed and what’s contributed post disaster by engaging with urban masses and key stakeholders in non- disaster times on myths, realities, dignity and changing needs of disaster hit people.
- Year round work with the masses and key stakeholders around breaking disaster related myths, sensitizing them to mindful giving through sessions, exhibitions etc. brings efficiency in operations and reduces wastage of precious resources.
- In the initial few weeks post a disaster, our focus is on building collaborations with partners and stakeholders at local, regional, national and international level from different walks of life, for different things, to generate resources.
- Filling Gaps in other agencies’ disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts and resources thus minimizing duplication of efforts.
- Our teams mobilize and motivate disaster hit communities normally considered victims, as powerful stakeholders, in repairing and restoring their own buildings, roads, bridges damaged in a disaster.
- In the process our work helps build capacities and resilience of their communities. Creating Livelihood with Disaster wastage Goonj has been persistently working on disaster wastage for many years now after different disasters across Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Many of Goonj’s successful livelihood initiatives have evolved from our experiments with disaster wastage.
