#IndiaPrepares

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Publication

#IndiaPrepares

A national campaign to promote disaster preparedness

• The campaign ‘Be Ready. Be safe’ emphasizes on leadership and preparedness qualities in people during emergencies
• CARE India launches the third edition of the campaign

New Delhi/NCR, 14^h February 2018:  The #IndiaPrepares campaign has been launched by CARE India for the third consecutive year. The campaign is on for a period of 23 days from 5 – 28 February 2018. Based on the principle, ‘Be Ready. Be safe’, the campaign aims to capacitate communities and stakeholders to be prepared for any type of emergency, irrespective of where they live or work. It will also, while raising awareness on disaster response and management, illustrate the cause and effect relationship that exists between climate change and disaster.

CARE India is driving the #IndiaPrepares campaign by:

• Organizing interactions and cultural activities in disaster prone communities across India.
• Engaging people through interactive content on disaster preparedness such as pictures, infographics, stories and videos, thus spreading the word among communities.
• Organizing strategic interventions in schools and colleges and workshops at institutions and corporations.
• Utilizing social media platforms (facebook, twitter, Instagram) to share pictures, infographics, videos and stories around #IndiaPrepares, thus spreading the word among online communities.
• Displaying and printing banners that will be put up in public spaces to promote community involvement, participation and interaction.
• Collaborating with community-based grassroot NGOs to train local communities on how to handle emergency and crisis situations in a more strategic and effective manner
• Actively identifying partners who can help mitigate disaster situations by operationalising resources and information centres.
• Circulating comprehensive guidelines on what to expect before and after a disaster, amongst communities.

Shri Rajan Bahadur, MD & CEO, CARE India shares, “The #IndiaPrepares campaign on disaster preparedness have had a successful run over the past two years. In fact, last year the #IndiaPrepares campaign reached out to over 1, 01,900 people through online and field activities, and we are looking forward to reaching out to even more people this year with the third edition of this campaign. Every year we facilitate a series of preparedness activities in states which are prone to disasters. We continue to work with concerned state government agencies, and community groups so as to improve awareness and streamline systems of preparedness.”

India is vulnerable to a large number of disasters. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, more than 58.6 per cent of the landmass of India is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity; over 40 million hectares (12%) of its land is prone to floods and river erosion; close to 5,700 kms, out of the 7,516 kms long coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis; 68% of its cultivable area is vulnerable to droughts; and, its hilly areas are at risk from landslides and avalanches. Due to the disaster risk profile of India, and increasing frequency of disasters it is extremely important that everyone in this country is aware of the disaster risks, and prepared to cope with and respond to disasters.  CARE India is committed to respond to humanitarian emergencies and meet immediate survival needs of affected population. Special efforts are being made to address specific needs of women, girls, men and boys from the most marginalised and vulnerable sections of community in a timely and effective manner. A trained roster of staff, volunteers and our partner NGOs is maintained, besides regular internal reviews of systems and procedures for organisational preparedness to respond.  These allow for the deployment of resources in a structured and deliberate manner to ensure that potential loss of life and assets are avoided.

About CARE India:

CARE has been working in India for over 65 years, focusing on ending poverty and social injustice, through well-planned and comprehensive programs in health, education, livelihoods and disaster preparedness and response. Our overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalized communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods. We are a full member of CARE International Confederation working in over 90 countries for a world where all people live in dignity and security. In India, CARE focuses on the empowerment of women and girls because they are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination; and suffers abuse and violations in the realization of their rights, entitlements and access, and control over resources. Also experience shows that, when equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities overcome poverty, marginalization and social injustice.

For more info, please visit us at: http://www.careindia.org/

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