Church Workers Lament Haphazard Tsunami Funding

|TOP|Church leaders still working to rebuild India’s east coast one year after the devastating tsunami struck have voiced concern over the lack of coordination and haphazard funding.

The executive secretary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) summed up the experience of its 11 member churches in carrying out relief work in the tsunami-afflicted areas.

"We could have done much better work but for lack of coordination," said the Rev. Chandran Paul Martin.

According to Rev. Martin, a “lack of coordination was visible in many areas,” despite the great care taken by the church agencies in their areas of responsibility.

|QUOTE|Sheila Jones, chief southern zone officer of the Churches Auxiliary for Social Action organization which represents 24 Orthodox and Protestant churches, also expressed regret over the way in which funding had been handled.

"There was an overwhelming response from donors and others, but due to the indiscriminate use of funds the (tsunami) victims have not had the kind of relief they could have had,” she said.

Both Jones and Martin cited the distribution of costly glass fibre boats in the region as just one example poorly thought-out assistance.

|AD|According to Jones some fishermen had been given two boats each which were so big that each one could have been shared between the four people required to sail them.

Martin added that it was "a pity" that months after their distribution, the fishermen had neither been provided with the nets or engines necessary to be able to use the boats.

"We have got these beautiful boats, but what can we do with them?" asked Raman Sreenivasan, head of the fishing hamlet of Kodiyakarai situated 390 kilometres south of Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state.

"We shall have to find other work if the situation remains like this," Sreenivasan told ENI.