EFICOR'S Response To COVID - 19 Second Wave Update-15

Dear Partners,

With 54 years of experience in Relief response, we have learned many things in our interventions. Our work over the years has involved responding to what we call ‘natural’ disasters like floods, earthquakes, tsunami and human-made disasters like household fires and riots etc. There are several things that we learn each time, which helps us to respond in a better way. From 1967, when we first started, there have been several international guidelines that have emerged to ensure that any relief response safeguards the community and those who are involved in the intervention. EFICOR abides by these international standards to ensure that we do no harm and that the community is able to come out of the situation with dignity. As a “Core Humanitarian Standard” accredited organisation, we also try to follow the highest possible standards and ensure that the community is heard, and their concerns addressed.

One of the most important aspects of all our interventions are also the staff team who implement the work. While we have a disaster response team and teams working in Disaster Risk Reduction, we try to ensure that all our teams have basic training in disaster response so that they can be involved in any response as needed. The Covid pandemic, especially the second wave, has been unlike any other disaster. This time, our own staff were affected directly. Many staff members and their families were affected and some had to be hospitalized. We sadly lost one staff member to Covid very early in April 2021. In spite of all these difficulties, the staff team at EFICOR have risen to the challenge and we have been able to accomplish our work through the dedication of the team, our local volunteers and supporters.

Our learning from previous interventions have also helped us to respond better and we want to be an organisation that continues to learn. In this update, we want to acknowledge our team and their hard work that has enabled us to respond on such a large scale. Thank you for investing in our teams over the years and for trusting us with the resources. Our staff remain safe following Covid Appropriate Behaviour and working with the community to ensure that they are able to tide over this most difficult period.

Thank you for your support.

Ms Kuki Rokhum
Lead - Training and RM
EFICOR