CARE International: Difference between revisions

CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty that operates in more than 70 countries.

One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate poverty is women’s empowerment. Women are at the center of many of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also is responsible for delivering emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters and is often also involved with the rebuilding process.

CARE stated that in 2010 they implemented 768 projects in 70 countries, reaching almost 57 million people.^[1]

CARE was first established in the United States during the month of November 1945 as Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe.^[2] It was founded in response to the decimation of Europe from the violence of the World War II. The idea was that Americans would be able to send “CARE Packages” to those who were in desperate need of (food) relief. This action represented the collective effort of 22 American organizations (religious, civic, cooperative, labor, etc.). Thousands of Americans, including President Harry S. Truman, contributed to the effort. In 1946 the organization “opened its first offices in Canada to broaden support for its mission.”^[2] On May 11, 1946, the first 20,000 packages reached the battered port of Le Havre, France. Some 100 million more CARE Packages reached people in need during the next two decades, first in Europe and later in Asia and other parts of the developing world. In 1948, CARE was already working in many Asian countries — first came Japan, then the Philippines, Korea, India, and Pakistan. By the early 1950s, the organization had been launched in many Latin American countries and by the 1960s had spread to Africa as well.^[2]

CARE officially changed the meaning of its acronym to Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere in 1953 as a response to its changing operation. Over the next few decades the CARE package was phased out, focusing instead on large development projects and disaster relief operations.^[3] This included large-scale supplementary feeding programs using U.S. surplus agricultural commodities and self-help community development programs. During the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, CARE’s programming approach continued to evolve as it developed its capacity in various sectors, including agriculture, primary health care, and small enterprise development.^[2] In the 1970s, CARE responded to massive famines in Africa with both emergency relief and long-term agroforestry projects^[4] integrating environmentally sound tree- and land-management practices with farming programs.

During the 1980s, independent CARE organizations were set up in other countries and CARE International (CI) was established as an umbrella organization.^[2] In 1993 CARE changed its name again. This time, “American” was changed to “Assistance” leading to the organization’s current name: Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere.^[5]

In 1994, CARE celebrated its 50th anniversary; it also looked internally to see how it could further evolve to meet the needs of a rapidly developing world. It was in this mind-set that CARE sought to re-brand itself in order to avoid the growing confusion about what it actually did.^[5] McCann Erickson conducted a number of focus groups in six countries and found that CARE, though recognizable as an “old” and “large” organization, had very weak brand-awareness as compared with other NGOs in the sector such as UNICEF or the Red Cross. The study also found that people perceived CARE to be “empathetic, but not particularly effective.”^[5]

One of the primary outcomes was the new logo with the tagline “Where the end of poverty begins.” Many of the international members (such as CARE Australia and many European members) had issues with the rebranding, ranging from the coloring to the phrasing of the tagline. The Australians did not want to be confused as a land rights organization and the Europeans and field staff felt that the tagline sounded too arrogant. A compromise was reached wherein CARE International agreed to allow country offices to modify and translate the slogan accordingly for their respective areas. There was also controversy over lack of communication with the field offices, which, after the rebranding, expressed concern that the new brand did not fit within some local contexts. This shift to a rights-based approach, was widely considered a “top-down” decision.^[5]

As the brand continued growing internationally, CARE USA aimed to raise awareness of its presence in the United States from a lowly 2% (unaided; the Red Cross was at 42%). It decided to focus on women’s empowerment. Global statistics on the impact of poverty on women and girls was also a major catalyst for the platform to gain momentum: The majority of people living in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day).^[6] At the time, 60% of the primary-school-age children not in school were female.^[6] Women aged 15–24 in sub-Saharan Africa were three times more likely to be infected with HIV than men of the same ages.^[6] Two thirds of the 876 illiterate adults were women, etc.^[6] Basically, there was a lot of motivation behind the idea of women’s empowerment and it also fell in line with CARE’s commitment to rights-based approaches to development.^[5]

Launched in September 2006, the idea was to empower women everywhere, from the women CARE was focusing on empowering, to the women it was trying to get to donate. The message was, “She has the power to change the world. You have the power to help her do it—” It was a summary statement and a call to action. CARE publicized the campaign through the use of celebrity spokespeople such as Sheila Johnson — the co-founder of BET; Christy Turlington — model; and Meg Ryan — actress; as well as a press tour, corporate sponsorships, print ads in high profile women’s magazines, radio ads, web presence on “woman-oriented” sites, etc. Perhaps most important was the complete overhaul of the CARE website, offering a “new look” and including images from the campaign itself. The whole campaign was highly targeted and focused, which is why it was able to become one of the identifying features of the CARE organization.^[5]

CARE International (CI) is a confederation of twelve international members, meaning national sections. Every section sends its national director and a member of its board (usually the chair) to the CI board. The board governs the CARE International Secretariat, based in Switzerland as a foundation. CI has country offices in the countries where it is active; a country office has a country director.^[7]

Ninety-seven percent of CARE's employees are citizens of the country where they work.^[8]

In 2009, CARE operated programs in the following countries:

CARE Indonesia was established in the Republic since 1967 and is part of CARE International, an independent federation working to alleviate global poverty. Generally, in the Water, Sanitation and Environmental Health aspect, CARE helps communities to build and maintain clean water systems and latrines.^[9]

CARE Indonesia helps communities to build and maintain clean water sources and sanitation systems in order to reduce the rate of waterborne diseases and increase access to clean and safe water.^[10] The primary geographic areas of CARE Indonesia's relief work and activities have been Sulawesi (2 provinces), Java (2 provinces), East Nusa Tenggara, and West Nusa Tenggara.^[11]

CARE Indonesia has partnerships with both local and international NGOs to better provide training and construction subsidy.^[9] Local communities also make significant contributions both in cash and labour to share the cost of operation and maintenance of setting up proper sanitation projects. The goal of these projects is to reduce the health risks of water-related diseases and to increase the earning potential of households by saving time otherwise spent fetching water. Projects also include educating people about good hygiene practice, which reduces the risk of illnesses.^[11] CARE Indonesia’s Community Self-Financing of Water and Sanitation Systems (WSS) Program includes:^[11]

The Sulawesi Rural Development Project, which was a component of Water and Sanitation System (WSS) Program is still active today, targeting the poorest in rural areas for getting access to good hygiene.

CARE Indonesia's Aman Tirta' program is working to stimulate the commercial sector to manufacture, distribute and market Air Rahmat,^[12] an inexpensive, locally made water purification solution. Air Rahmat is also a fast and cost-effective way to deliver clean water to survivors of disaster.

CARE Indonesia has worked with both rural and urban communities in Indonesia and has discovered that work needs to be attuned to the context. Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) work requires greater time for community decision-making and specification of boundaries for project coverage. Urban communities were also less able to contribute labour support than rural counterparts.^[13]

In Indonesia’s WASHES project, consumers have maintained facilities at a high standard because they felt they were part of the investment process. However, the WASHES project in Indonesia faced a problem. The government's budget cycles could not be adjusted to the slower pace of community-led project expansion. Eventually the project lost financing because it could not spend its entire allocation in the specified period.^[14]

One of the core principle of many NGOs, including CARE Indonesia is to ensure sustainability in its WASH project to provide the option for multi-year funding of at least 3 to 5 years to meet the need for long term engagement in community WASH promotion. Longer-term funding of 3-5years was deemed critical by most NGOs for sustainable outcomes. This could be achieved through potentially disbursing funds within 2 years for longer programs, or committing resources beyond a certain years. Dedicated long-term funding to the sector is crucial for development effectiveness. Thus, CARE Indonesia works closely with government in Indonesia. In addition, for local government to plan and budget for their contribution, 6 months is needed prior to an annual investment cycle, in which requiring a 3 year project timeframe to be effective.^[13]

• Non-governmental organization
• Private voluntary organization
• Rights-based approach to development

CARE Indonesia

• "Government urged to protect child domestic workers". The Jakarta Post. 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2012-04-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• "Borneo project aims to yield lessons on saving forests". Reuters. June 19, 2009. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
• "Asia-Pacific | NGOs in new plea for Java funds". BBC News. 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
• Alertnet (2009-10-01). "Aid workers grapple with infrastructure damage after Sumatra quake - AlertNet". Trust.org. Retrieved 2012-04-18.

• CARE
• CARE International
• CARE Package
• Reducing Global Poverty from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• PBS NewsHour: Judy Woodruff speaks with former first lady Laura Bush, Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CARE President Helene D. Gayle about issues facing girls and women around the world, and how programs to address those issues fit into the U.S. foreign aid picture.
• Transnational NGO Initiative Interview with Maliha Khan, Director for Program Impact of CARE USA.