Introduction
On average almost half of the world’s population comprising of approximately more than three billion people usually lives on less than $ 2.50 a day whereas a commendable number of the worlds population is living under the poverty line according to World Bank Development indicators of 2008.Hence this necessitates the presence of international non-governmental organization such as CARE international which is global confederation consisting of twelve individual national member organizations which are working together to curb these alarming rates of poverty levels. This is because those hit by poverty amongst the worlds population is found in Africa as well as inAsiacontinents where most of the population is living below the poverty line. This has been greatly influenced by the increased widening of the income differentials in most of the world’s populations. Thus, according to UNICEF, an approximate of 22,000 children usually dies every day as a result of poverty. Hence they die in some of the most poor villages on earth quietly, which are sometimes far removed from the conscience and scrutiny of the world. Also by being weak as well as meek in life enables these multitudes which are dying to be more invisible in death as well.
CARE International is considered one of the largest international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) whose main purpose is to provide relief as well as promoting development in its efforts to fight global poverty. Hence being non-sectarian and hence non political, it operates every year in over 70 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe, whereby it reaches almost sixty million people from poor communities. CARE International history can be traced back in year 1945 just after the end of World War II when it was founded. Initially it was known by the name The Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, whose aim was to send basic supplies and food aid to the war-toneEurope, which was sent in the form of CARE packages. During that time it was hard to find such relief food and large numbers of people were faced by the risks of suffering from hunger as a result of food scarcity. When the economies of the countries which were formally war-torn improved, CARE International shifted its focus fromEuropeto work on the developing world problems. Since then CARE international has emerged to be a proven leader compared to many other international humanitarian organizations, always trying its best to bring about lasting as well as meaningful change amongst the poorest communities in the world through tackling the underlying causes of poverty and helping the people to be self sufficient.
CARE International goals and mission
CARE international has emerged to be a very large humanitarian International NGO which is always very committed in its fight against poverty. Hence the CARE International mission has been to serve families and individuals in the world’s poorest communities, with special interest in the empowerment of the women who are poor because women always have power to save families as well as entire community from poverty. Also by drawing strength from global resources diversity and experience, CARE International is capable of advocating for global responsibility as well promoting innovative solutions to problems facing the poor in the world who are also very vulnerable to emergencies and natural disaster such as floods, droughts, earthquakes and many more. Hence CARE helps in promoting lasting change by continuous struggle to achieve its mission and goals which are as follows ; 1) provision of economic opportunities which enables the enhancement of self-sufficiency amongst the poor communities in world ; 2)it strengthens the capacity for self-help mainly through its enormous initiatives whose main aim is to promote self –help among the individual in the poorest communities; 3)delivering relief in emergencies , this is because in the occurrence of such emergencies or natural disasters there is always a shortage of food and other essential services thus it becomes important for interventions to save people from the sufferings they might be exposed to which could be from hunger or disease outbreak; 4)it also plays a greater role in influencing policy decision almost at all levels of governance .this helps in promoting the decision and policies which are people friendly as well as targeting problems solving and alleviation of object porverty;5)It also addresses discrimination in all it forms whereby it advocates for a peaceful coexistence amongst people from all backgrounds with any discrimination on the basis that you are either poor or rich , black or white as w4ll as sick or heath .thus , the local communities aspirations are the ones which guide CARE to pursue its goals and missions both with compassion and excellence because they deserve nothing less than that when being served .
The CARE International also holds very strong to its core values which are respect, integrity, commitment and excellence. In terms of respect it affirms the potential, dignity as well as contribution of donors, partners, participants and staff. They also have the commitment of working together as a team in order to effectively serve the community as whole. When integrity is considered CARE International usually acts in transparency and honesty in whatever it does as well as accepting responsibilities for individual or collective actions done. The CARE International has also excelled because of its constant challenge to itself in attaining the higher levels of performance in order to achieve a greater impact to the communities they serve.
The role and achievements of CARE international in a global civil society
One of the greatest roles of CARE International is to tackle most of the underlying causes of abject poverty in order to promote self-sufficiency among the people it works with. Thus, there are around 1,200 projects carried out by CARE International every year in more than 65 countries which are predominantly in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and theMiddle Eastwhereby it ends up reaching people in poor communities whose number is more than 50 million. There is a lot of focus and working with women from world’s poorest communities by equipping them with proper resources. CARE International is also in the front line while responding to emergencies such as civil conflicts or natural disasters. Hence, most of the CARE International projects are directed at assisting the survivors of conflicts and natural disasters which is done through immediate relief as well as community rehabilitation which are long-term. This includes food, medical care, clean water, temporary shelter, sanitation services, reproductive health services and family planning as well as tools and seeds.
In addition to responding to emergencies CARE International has achieved a lot through its roles to the global civil society. Some of the roles and achievements includes: agriculture and natural resources whereby CARE International participate in helping families increase their income by producing more food as well as preserving the environment through proper management of natural resources. CARE International always work alongside farmers to make sure there is increased livestock and crop yields through modern farming practices which includes animal husbandry, planting advanced seed varieties, irrigation and home gardening. In the education sector the CARE International helps to promote basic education for everyone. This is because experience has shown that educated people have greater earning potential and healthier families. Most of the CARE International projects in education are targeted at facilitating and promoting discussion between teachers, parents and other members of the community in order to enhance alleviation of education barriers that continues to hold families in poverty. At sometimes CARE International is even forced to provide economic incentives in order to facilitate the parents to cover the cost of keeping their children in school.
It is not possible for families to be economically healthy when they are not physically healthy, hence CARE International has numerous projects on health care which mainly focus on children and mothers who are most vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. It mainly achieves this target through increasing their local partners’ capacity to offer quality health services. This is mainly done through seeking for volunteers who are then trained in local health as mentors, counsellors, and monitors of community health. CARE International interventions in health range from clinical services, family planning and nutrition. In order for proper and healthy development of children proper nutrition becomes inevitable. Hence most of CARE International projects on nutrition focus on practices and techniques which are essential to prevent malnutrition. These projects include proper demonstration of breast feeding, educating communities as well as individual about methods of growing and preparation of nutritious food, and also giving food as one of the efforts to emergency relief as well as promoting the infrastructure improvement by communities through food-for-work projects management. Most of the CARE International reproductive health projects involve prenatal care, labour and delivery services, family planning as well as preventing, detecting and treating sexually transmitted infections which include HIV/AIDS. When considering HIV/AIDS program available it becomes evident that they focus on providing services and information to vulnerable groups. The HIV/AIDS program carried out by CARE enables creation of a link with other sectors such as education, health as well as economic development. These programs facilitate the caring of children who are orphaned as well as becoming vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS. CARE develops outreach and peer education in community as well as increasing accessibility to services such as voluntary counselling and testing, condoms as well as providing anti-retroviral treatment to those who are already infected by HIV/AIDS.
CARE International has also been greatly involved in economic development programs which help in assisting families which are poor. It does this through supporting activities which facilitates making money, and most especially the ones operated by women. CARE International also initiates savings and loan programs in communities as well as providing technical training in order to help expand small businesses or even begin new ones that will lead to increased income to the family. CARE International also participates in projects involving sanitation, water and environmental health. It achieves this by helping communities to build as well as maintain clean latrines and water systems. It does this either through local organizations or even directly, whereby it trains as well as subsidizing construction, where the community has to contribute in terms of labour and cash, as well as paying minimum costs of maintenance and operation. The projects goal is to reduce diseases which are water-related thus reducing their health risks as well as increasing earning potential through saving time which would have bee spent fetching water, which involves covering long distances. These projects also involve educating the communities about good hygiene practices which would lead to the reduction of the risk of illnesses.
The campaign and approach of promoting CARE International strategies
The CARE International’s approach towards alleviating poverty has been focused on addressing the underlying causes of poverty, whereas not to simply focus on the outcomes of poverty. Hence since poverty is considered a product of social processes which are complex, thus CARE always seeks to understand the factors which contribute to poverty amongst the people before it can concentrate on which project to undertake. This makes sense because CARE has managed to determine the main causes of poverty considering three important but different perspectives; first, it considers the issue from people’s basic needs perspective, then it also considers the issue from the position in which these people are in the society, and last form the way in which the society the lives in works. Thus this has enabled CARE to address the effects of poverty from three different points of view which are; social positions where it helps people to end discrimination and inequality, take control of their lives and fulfill their responsibilities, rights and aspirations. Also human conditions point of view is considered in which it ensures basic needs of people are met whereas the future generations will have the same needs also met. It has also enabled environment through creation of equitable and sound governance, as well as promoting the establishment of political and social environment which is sensitive to justice, equity as well as secure livelihoods for all. The above three perspectives and approaches encompasses the breadth of the work of CARE as discussed above, and thus by undertaking the strategy of addressing the underlying causes of poverty, there has been a continuous development of solutions which are sustainable for the future, hence campaigns and strategies employed have been successful in terms of achievements of CARE’s goals and mission.
How CARE International operates and its coverage
CARE International is a confederation of twelve national members whereby each one in its own right is an autonomous non-governmental organization. It consists of CARE International secretariat which serves to coordinate the activities of CARE as a whole. From the secretariat the next organ is the CARE International members which are twelve in number and they are independently registered in their own countries. They are governed by directors who also serve as trustees. The 12 members of CARE International are; CARE Denmark, CARE Australia, CARE France, CARE Norge, CARE Canada, CARE Thailand, CARE USA, CARE International UK, CARE International Japan, CARE Osterreich, CARE Netherlands and CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg. There also the CARE International country offices headed by a CARE country director and they works to implement all projects and programs of CARE in the country. All CARE members involve themselves in country programs such as project identification and design, technical assistance provision, as well as provision of human resources, finances or any other support to the country office. Most of the activities of CARE International are present in over 70 countries all over the world ranging from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe toAsia.
Advantages and Disadvantages of International Non-Governmental Organisations
Since the quality and nature of individual international NGOs vary greatly, it is therefore very difficult to generalize about them as a whole. However despite this diversity, some specific advantages which are generally associated with the international NGOs include the following: strong grassroots links in the communities where they are working, they have the ability to innovate and adapt, they also employ participatory methodologies and tools, cost-effectiveness, they promote field-based development expertise, as well as long-term commitment on sustainability. However there some disadvantages most commonly identified amongst the international NGOs which includes: limited management and financial expertise, there is also institutional capacity limitation, low levels of sustaining themselves hence relying mainly on governments and donor funding, lack of or minimal inter-organizational coordination and/or communication, small scale interventions, lack of or inadequate understanding of the broader economic or social context.
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