Church's Auxiliary for Social Action


Church's Auxiliary for Social Action or CASA is a non-religious Indian development organisation based in Chennai 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
Mar Aprem Mooken writes,

Genesis

The partition of India played a virtual havoc with peoples lives which Jawaharlal Nehru, 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 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,
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.
List of Directorships

  • 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

CASA's approach to development could be put in the following way,
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'