Dorcas

Dorcas is an international organisation for relief and development. Striving for lasting change for those who live in poverty, are excluded, or are caught in a crisis. Dorcas works in 15 countries across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching over one million people annually.
What we do
Dorcas implements four types of programmes, that are often linked: 1) Relief, 2) Early Recovery and Resilient Livelihoods, 3) Enterprising People and Communities, and 4) Community Based Care and Protection. Throughout all these programmes our focus is on those communities and groups within communities that are most excluded from access to services. Dorcas operates through country offices led by local staff, and in cooperation with national and international stakeholders.
Our WASH approach
Dorcas uses an entrepreneurial approach for WASH whereby preferably SME’s, individuals and groups, play a role in the construction, management, maintenance and marketing of WASH solutions/systems. Dorcas’ own role changes at the different levels – from awareness creation and capacity building of SME’s to coordinator or process facilitator in a multi-stakeholder collaboration. Moreover we use a concept of Developing Resilient Entrepreneurship and Access to Market Systems (DREAMS) that focuses on access to inclusive basic services through identification and development of market based solutions, inclusive business models and social marketing.