13-16 January 2009, Kolkata

In the process of empowering the Churches to respond to various social issues more effectively, CASA has been organising seveal Church leaders' consultations / workshops at various levels.  In the past several such consultations were held for the top church leaders on issues, such as Tsunami Response,  Right to Information Act, Millennium Development Goals, etc.

On 13th -16th January 2009, CASA organised a Training Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM), at Kolkata for the Church leaders drawn from the member Churches and Regional Christian Councils. There were around 40 paricipants from all over India.  The objective of the Workshop was to strengthen the existing DRRM mechanism of the Churches or to  facilitate developing a DRRM initiative in the member churches of CASA.

The Keynote address of the workshop was delivered by Mr. Subhasish Debnath, State Programme Officer, DRMP, UNDP, Kolkata. The entire programme was facilitated by the Disaster management experts from CASA, namely Mr. Joseph Sahayam, Adl. Emergency Officer, CASA-South Zone, Mr. Jonathan Rout, Project Officer, CASA, East Zone, Ms. Joycia Thorat, Project Officer, West Zone and Mr. Dinesh Suna, Policy Officer, CASA, New Delhi.  The programme was organised in a very creative and participatory manner with lot of group exercises and discussions.  Rev. Dr. Somen Das, a renown Theologian took Bible Studies every day at the workshop.  That helped giving a Biblical and Theological basis to all our deliberations.

The participants have come up with a SMART (Specific-Measureable-Achievable-Realistic-Timebound) Plan of Action.  The participants also emphasized on the need for conducting similar programmes witht the Theological Colleges and try to incorporate the DRRM mechanism in to their syllabus, so that the students who are theologically trained will get a sound basis to initiate DRRM mechanisms, once they start their ministry.

The Director of CASA, Dr. Sushant Agrawal could not make it to the workshop as planned, due to some urgent unforseen engagement at the Headquarters.  Mr. Satyajit Das, CZO, East Zone provided the logistical support with his team and also gave valuable inputs in the workshop.  Mr. Dinesh Suna, Policy Officer, coordinated the programme with his co-facilitators.