Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 29 April 2013

With official documents in hand, in this series I am trying to narrate the details of crorepati non-government organizations functioning in Gujarat – author

In last article we picked up five SEWA NGOs and told you that the total foreign donation received by them in last six years was around Rs 1.40 billion. Now if you think 1.50 billion could be a better figure rather than 1.40 billion, you are free to add Rs 10 crore received by SEWA family’s another NGO.

Yes, SEWA family!

While Elaben Bhatt and her bahu Reema Nanawati run various NGOs under SEWA, Elaben’s son and Reemaben’s husband Mihir Bhatt runs NGO called Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI).

The NGO is registered as All India Disaster Mitigation Institute. It is headquartered at 411, Sakar Ashram Road, Ahmedabad. In last six years, AIDMI has received Rs. 10,48,00,595 from foreign nations as donations.

Year and total foreign donation received
2011-12: Rs 1,47,94,525.71
2010-11: Rs 1,26,52,519.61
2009-10: Rs 2,11,92,150.53
2008-09: Rs 1,53,96,868.30
2007-08: Rs 190,19,896.36
2006-07: Rs 2,13,63,568.90

Prominent among the donors is Christian religious funding agency ‘Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid member of CIDSE and Caritas International’ (CORDAID), which has donated crores of Rupees for the purpose of “Relief/Rehabilitation of victims of natural calamities.”

There’s another Christian religious agency: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee(Washington DC, America) that has donated huge sum of money to AIDMI for “Relief/Rehabilitation of victims of natural calamities.”

AIDMI website claims: AIDMI has responded to several large-scale disasters. These include the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the 2005 and 2006 Gujarat floods, the 2007 and 2008 Bihar floods, cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the 2010 Leh cloud burst, the 2011 Odisha floods, the 2011 Sikkim earthquake and the 2011 Cyclone Thane in South India along with many small local disasters and accidents. Through relief efforts, AIDMI applies a human security approach that focuses on long-term recovery and community development including focus on four component securities: food, water, shelter and livelihood. 14,000 Livelihood recovery families and more than 8000 habitat support families.

Coming back tot he donation part, in year 2011-12, Netherland based ‘Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid member of CIDSE and Caritas International’ (CORDAID) sent Rs 11281267.00 to AIDMI, the highest donation among all donors of AIDMI in this year. In 2010-11 same Catholic agency funded Rs 11173725.23 to AIDMI. The figure of funding from same agency was Rs 11096128.10 in 2009-10. Majority of this fund was transferred for “Relief/Rehabilitation of victims of natural calamities.”

In year 2007-08, Rs. 10159547.00 were transferred to AIDMI from a country called Swaziland.

In year 2006-07 Washington DC, America based religious organization Unitarian Universalist Service Committee funded Rs 13,73,294.20 for relief/rehabilitation of victgims of natural calamities and Rs 7,15,213.74 for research.

This Unitarian Universalist emerges as one of the major foreign donors sending money to Gujarat based NGOs. Christian father who heads this American Church organization visited Gujarat in recent past. Why Universalist Church in Washington DC would donate crores of fund every year for various motives ranging from human right to disaster relief to Bhatt family run NGOs and others?

The other foreign donors of AIDMI are; Concern Worldwide(Ireland), ADRA India, Brooking Institution(Washington), Wetlands International(Wageningen), Aware Foundation(Usmanpura Ahmedabad), Japan International Corporation Agency, Results Matter Consulting Limited(UK), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies(Geneva), Commonwealth Foundation(London), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center(Thailand), American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee(USA), OXFAM Community Aid Abroad(Australia), University of Basel, Practical Action(Sri Lanka) etc.

Previous article of this series: Imagine the figure of foreign money received by SEWA organizations, then read the actual number!