HISTORY OF JOINT ASSISTANCE CENTRE

Joint Assistance Centre in India

The strategy has been to build up people’s capability to cope with disasters primarily through training and education programs. Over the years, JAC India had developed excellent interactive linkages with many NGOs, volunteer agencies, youth organizations, resource people, institutions and government functionaries in the country. Outside India, Mr. Jain and JAC were associated with the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, USA; Datum International UK; and Overseas Disaster Response Organisation of Australia. Mr. Jain was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Disaster Management Diploma Program at the University of Wisconsin, USA. Since 1982, JAC India has been included in the Directory of Training Institutions for Disaster Management of the office of UN Disaster Relief Coordinator, UNDRO, now called the Department of Humanitarian Affairs–DHA and has worked in close collaboration with the Secretariat for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction of the United Nations, IDNDR, located in Geneva, Switzerland. JAC India had acquired expertise in development of training methods, training materials and creating specific target oriented training modules. Between May and August 1995, JAC India organized 5 workshops in different parts of India on behalf of CAPART on the theme Building Up National Capabilities to cope with natural disasters followed by a working group meeting to review the recommendations of the five workshops. Extensive documentation formed the basis of discussions at the workshops and the working group. A comprehensive report was submitted to the sponsors at CAPART. JAC India assisted in formulating India’s first formal educational curriculum on Disaster Management as an optional subject at the Post Graduate Hill Area Development Engineering Course at the M M M Engineering College, Gorakhpur. Launched in January1999, JAC India assisted the Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU, in developing curricula for distant-education courses for a Certificate in Disaster Management. JAC India has helped in setting up new volunteer agencies with similar objectives in disaster management and training such as PREPARE in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the Institute for Youth and Disaster Preparedness in Orissa, the Gandak Valley Flood Prevention Association in Bihar, the Institute for Disaster Reduction and Management in Maharashtra and the AP Disaster Reduction Forum in Andra Pradesh. JAC India was unanimously chosen as the Focal Point for the Global Forum of NGOs for Disaster Reduction, GFNDR, established by NGOs of 6 continents present at the UN World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction in Yokahama, Japan, in May 1994.

JAC India was a Charter Member of the Leadership Coalition for Global Business Protection and was a member of the Coordination Committee of International Voluntary Services at UNESCO, France; the Environment Liaison Centre International at UNEP, Kenya; the International Voluntary Health Association, UK; and International Association of Voluntary Effort, Switzerland. JAC India was engaged in the task of organizing as Charter Member the Indian Association of Emergency Managers set up at Porbandar, Gujarat, in September 1999 and evolved a system of certification for personnel in disasters. JAC India was also engaged in the task of empowerment programs for the poor through youth programs and work camps with the aim of rural and social development at a grass roost level, in addition to publishing the JAC Bulletin meant for prevention and management of disaster situations. Awareness programs in Delhi are conducted in collaboration with the Central Board for Workers Education. Village Ahmed Nagar, District Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, and village Megra, District Gaya, Bihar, have been indicated for establishment of a nursery library and a Population Employment Coordination Programme on a voluntary basis through NREGA and other Rural Development Programmes of State and Central Government.

Joint Assistance Centre (USA), Inc.

A massive earthquake struck Maharashtra on September 30, 1993 measuring 6.4 on Richter scale with epicentre at Killari in Latur district. Extensive damage was caused to life and property in the districts of Latur and Osmanabad with 7,928 people killed, 16,000 injured and 15,847 livestock killed. In Latur and Osmanabad, 52 villages were razed to ground wherein 27,000 houses, amenities and related infrastructure facilities were totally damaged. Nearly 220,000 houses in the adjoining villages of Latur and Osmanabad and 11 other districts of Solapur, Satara, Sangli, Beed, Parbhani, Ahmednagar, Nanded, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Pune and Nashik suffered varying degrees of damage.

It was this great need and the even greater outpouring of offers of voluntary assistance that lead to the establishment of Joint Assistance Center, Inc., in the United States. Mr. Krishna Gopalan set up JACUSA and began funneling volunteers from all over the world to disaster sites in the Maharastra area. Since then, Mr. Gopalan has been sending volunteers to various community-development projects in India (many through JAC India), Nepal and Bangladesh. The scope of the projects has grown beyond disaster relief to include education, agriculture, women’s issues, water and construction.

JACUSA received it’s federal non-profit tax status in 2008 and is now able to fundraise for all community-development projects in South and Southeast Asia.