20.01.2005
LWF Department for World Service Director Assesses India's Tsunami-Affected Areas
A Deeper Commitment to Restoring Shattered LivelihoodsGENEVA, 20 January 2005 (LWI) - Mr Robert Granke, director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) is visiting India's tsunami-affected areas to assess the appropriate LWF response after the December 26 disaster, reported to have left some 220,000 people dead. More than one million were displaced in several countries around the Indian Ocean region.
"We are already working in India through our partners on the ground. We will be there for a long time in expression of the LWF's deeper commitment to restoring livelihoods that have been completely shattered by this catastrophe," Granke said prior to departing on the January 19-23 assessment mission.
Accompanied by Mr Howard Jost, director of the LWF/DWS program in India, Granke will visit Cuddalore and Pondicherry in the southeast where the LWF field program and Chennai-based United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) are collaborating in distribution of relief items to the affected people, and construction of temporary shelters. Several UELCI churches are present in the worst affected areas.
Out of the estimated 10,000 tsunami-related deaths in India, nearly 75 percent occurred on the southeast coast, particularly the state of Tamil Nadu. Thousands more are reportedly missing and over 140,000 mostly from fishing communities, are temporarily housed in relief centers. (219 words)
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