Recently, “The Indian Red Cross, Manipur state branch is as hospitable and rich in culture as the state itself,” that was the experience shared by Mr Manish Chaudhary, Joint Secretary, Indian Red Cross. The leadership of the Indian Red Cross, National Headquarter had decided to review the branch strength and capacity in light of projects awarded to the branch.

The most striking feature of the Red Cross in Manipur is its volunteer base. This branch has volunteers in the age group of 10 – 80 years. The strength and charisma of the branch can be measured by the fact that till date they have not hired any employee. Further, the state branch has good assets like a stand-alone building in the main area of Imphal, and many other associations which have always rendered positivity in programming in the state.

The agenda of the visit was to have an overview of the state branch functioning, to conduct a SWOT i.e. to identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the branch process. The outcome of the discussion was that the branch was working well and the volunteer base was also very strong but the only major missing factor was the “sustainability” element.

Mr Chaudhary valued the branch’s core strength – its volunteer spirit which was pivotal to the completion of the Floods 2017 – DREF programme within the given time frame. He also appreciated the element of adaptability within the branch to not only complete the given assignment but also be one of the leading branches to implement ODK kit and actually to use it while the DREF operation was going on. He also mentioned “The branch has a technically sound volunteer base within the Society”.