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Church's Auxiliary for Social Action

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Church's Auxiliary for Social Action
Company typeCharity
IndustryNGO
Founded1947, India
HeadquartersRegistered office: New Delhi
Zonal offices: Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai,
Sector offices: Guwahati, Imphal, Aizawl, Dimapur, Shillong, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Lucknow, Indore, Raipur, Udaipur, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tirunelveli, Alapuzha, Bapatla, Port Blair and Shimla
Key people
Busi Suneel Bhanu (Chairperson), Sushant Agarwal (Director)
Number of employees
500
Website[6]

Church's Auxiliary for Social Action or CASA (founded in 1947) is a non-religious Indian development organisation and charitable trust based in New Delhi and a service wing of the National Council of Churches in India comprising the Orthodox and Protestant Church Societies in India. CASA is a member of ACT Alliance[1]

Mar Aprem Mooken writes,[2]

Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India at the time of partition, asked the Christian community to assist in the work among the refugees, which the community readily responded through the National Council of Churches in India.

Genesis

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The partition of India played a virtual havoc with peoples lives which Jawaharlal Nehru,[3] then Prime Minister of India wanted to address and shared it with J. Waskom Pickett and Marshall Russell Reed who involved the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) to lend a hand in mitigating the suffering of the displaced people for which the NCCI formed an ad hoc Relief Committee. Over the years', the Relief Committee took different names,

  • 1947, Refugee and Famine Relief Committee or Central Relief Committee,[4]
  • 1955, Committee on Relief and Gift Supplies (CORAGS),[5]
  • Christian Agency for Social Action,[6]
  • (present) Church's Auxiliary for Social Action.

Funding

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As a development non-religious organisation the activities of CASA are funded through the individuals, the Churches in India, the State, the corporates and a few overseas ecumenical bodies.[3]

List of Directorships[7]

(Period, Name of the Director )

  • 1947-1947 - Dr. E. C. Bhatty
  • 1947-1948 - Dr. E. D. Lucas
  • 1949-1951 - Dr. Donald Ebright
  • 1952-1956 - Dr. Donald Rugh
  • 1956-1957 - Mr. Ranjit Chetsingh
  • 1957-1958 - Rev. Edward Benedict
  • 1958-1961 - Mr. J. S. S. Malelu
  • 1962-1966 - Capt. Alexander Jethro
  • 1966-1971 - Mr. Stephen Mathai
  • 1971-1971 - Mr. Idrak Bhatty
  • 1971-1972 - Mr. H. B. Kadambavanam
  • 1972-1974 - Mr. S. Ponraj
  • 1974-1975 - Mr. T. S. Francis
  • 1975-1977 - Mr. P. C. Joseph
  • 1977-2001 - Maj. J. K. Michael
  • 2001-Present - Dr. Sushant Agrawal

Programmatic interventions

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CASA's approach to development could be put in the following way,[8] The Cross Cutting Thematic Areas of CASA’s programmatic interventions are : 1. Humanitarian Aid 2. Development Initiatives to address Structural Poverty 3. Gender Mainstreaming 4. Climate Change 5. Local Capacities for Peace and 'Do No Harm'

References

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  1. ^ ACT Alliance Members
  2. ^ Mar Aprem Mooken, From Relief to Development: A Profile of CASA, Jaffe Books, 1979, p.17. [1]
  3. ^ a b CASA - About us Archived 2015-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ The National Christian Council Review, Volume 97, Wesley Press, 1977, p.139. [2]
  5. ^ H. Dwight Swartzendruber, Forty Years of Service Beyond Our Borders, Masthof Press, Morgantown, 2012. [3]
  6. ^ Harold C. Fey (Edited), A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Volume 2: 1948-1968, Wipf and Stock, Eugene, 2004, p.228. [4]
  7. ^ Somen Das, Mission Redefined' (CASA at 60 - striving towards life in fullness, Appendix C, Leadership of CASA. [5][permanent dead link]
  8. ^ CASA, Our Approach to Development Archived 2015-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
  • Thomas J. Davis (2013). Religion in Philanthropic Organizations: Family, Friend, Foe?. ISBN 9780253009975.
  • H. Dwight Swartzendruber (2012). Forty Years of Service Beyond Our Borders. Masthof Press. ISBN 9781601263636.
  • Somen Das (2008). "Mission Redefined' (CASA at 60 - striving towards life in fullness". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)[permanent dead link]
  • Damon P. Coppola (2007). Introduction to International Disaster Management. ISBN 9780080465739.
  • Terry Brown (2006). Other Voices Other Worlds: The Global Church Speaks Out on Homosexuality. ISBN 9780898697933.
  • Erwin Fahlbusch (1999). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Vol. 2. ISBN 9789004116955.
  • Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (1997). "From Despair to Hope: 50 Years of CASA". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Government of India (1987). "Encyclopaedia of social work in India". 4. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)