Institutional Support
DHAN Foundation
DHAN Foundation works with about 700,000 families in 9 states of India, striving to improve the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable sections by helping them to organize themselves, bring themselves out of poverty, and address their various development needs. The interventions are spread over the urban, rural, coastal, and tribal contexts.
Frequent disasters hinder development, at times bringing the process of development to a grinding halt as well as reversing the benefits gained so far. The 2004 tsunami’s devastating impact on the coastal population provided DHAN Foundation an opportunity to work with affected communities closely on a large scale and understand the effects and long term impacts of such diasters first hand. Drought is another natural disaster which affects the communities with whom DHAN Foundation works frequently. These situations have compelled DHAN to look at and address these issues on a more long term basis.
DHAN Foundation has realized that humanitarian responses which focus on providing relief alone are not enough. Project approaches which work at restoring the habitation and livelihoods of the affected community are also not enough. Rather, it is essential to work with the affected community on a long term basis, build people institutions, and internalize the process of disaster risk reduction at the community level. It is imperative for the development sector to enhance its own capacity in the field of disaster risk reduction if it is to build a strong disaster resilient community at the grassroots level. This requires the inputs of development organizations with trained human resources who work on disaster risk reduction, disaster response, and disaster management.
Thus, the Advanced Centre for Enabling Disaster Risk Reduction (ACE DRR) has been set up at Tata-Dhan Academy within the DHAN Collective. Being housed at the Academy, the Centre is in a unique position to capitalize on the direct action and field experiences of DHAN coupled with the academic rigour at the Academy.
Initially, the centre will focus on natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, and drought that have been frequenting the southern Indian peninsula. Later on, the centre will focus on the wider spectrum of disasters which cripples the lives and livelihoods of the community.