“Partnerships ought to be as strong as a tight handshake,” says Nava Kiran.

He made those comments after spending a day in India 's tsunami affected area with one of Lutheran World Relief's long time partners, CASA.

CASA stands for the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action. It is made up of most mainline Protestant and Orthodox Churches in India , and has worked on their behalf for more than 50 years.

So the partnership is old, and it is strong.

What is new is Nava Kiran, otherwise known as “Troty.” In August, Troty joined LWR to head up the tsunami recovery work in India .

“One of my first concerns is to cement the strong relationships LWR has with its well-established partners,” says Troty. “And that begins with a good handshake between LWR and CASA, with Lutheran World Service in India , and with the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India .”

“I want to see those partnerships continue, solid as ever,” he adds. “And I want to get to know those staff well.”

One he has gotten to know is Rajakumar Thambu, who has worked with CASA for nearly 30 years. Rajakumar knows development well, but knows from Day 1 what it means to do tsunami emergency work as well.

On that day, December 26, Rajakumar was visiting relatives near Vellore in southern India . Shortly after the tsunami struck, he learned from a sister who lived in Cuddalore, located by the ocean, that a tsunami had hit that town hard. Soon there were other calls, and before the day was out, Rajakumar was on a bus for a three and a half hour journey to Cuddalore. Later it became clear that it was the third worst hit area along the coastline of India 's mainland.

“When I arrived,” Rajakumar recalls well, “I saw so many bodies being brought to the hospital morgue. I immediately got in touch with the churches, and soon was fielding calls with CASA offices and lining up the most immediate relief activities. First it was cooked food and other essential needs. After that it was utensils and other food the people could prepare for themselves. Then the progression of doing disaster assistance gradually evolved until today, when it is no longer relief work but rehabilitation.”

Rajakumar was the first CASA staff person on the scene, and within days was joined by an army of others from CASA. As days went by, Rajakumar got transferred to Nagapattinam, a town further south of Chennai and Cuddalore, and the most devastated area in the state of Tamil Nadu. He is still there, serving as the team leader, for CASA.

“It was a good meeting with Rajakumar,” said Troty. “I especially like the way CASA moves in with qualified, experienced staff and works in close collaboration with the community.”

Immediately after the meeting Troty spoke with Sushant Agarwal, CASA's head in Delhi , not only to thank him for the day spent with CASA staff, but to congratulate CASA on the excellent and well-managed work it is doing.

Troty himself knows something about management, having come to this kind of work from the high tech sector, where he managed about 190 people in computer networking and services.

He joined the UELCI team, first as a volunteer for a two month stint, and soon decided to devote more of his life to tsunami work. He extended his work. Before long he received and was about to take a job offer with a large development agency to serve as its country's chief information officer. When LWR heard this news, there was a conversation with UELCI's head, who quickly recommended Troty for LWR. He would carry on the tsunami work being done by LWR's former Program Director for Asia and the Middle East , Gene Thiemann. Thiemann was scheduled to return soon to the U.S. after spending six months in India on LWR's behalf in tsunami recovery work.

Now, as Troty begins his work, he says there will be more handshakes. “Of course, we will cherish the warm relationship with our old partners. But we will also look to discover new partnerships, especially with smaller partners who may need additional funding to carry on their good work.

“We will be careful that the vision, mission and goals of new partners will be consistent with LWR's. We will check their track record, analyze their proposals, insure close programmatic and financial accompaniment, and sign partnership agreements.” But then Troty adds with a twinkle in his eyes, “We will seal it with a tight handshake!”

 

*Thiemann is a former LWR Program Director for Asia and the Middle East. He served for six months as LWR’s Tsunami Consultant in India.

Photo: LWR's Nava Kiran, left, in a handshake with Rajakumar Thambu of CASA.

Photo credit: Chris Thiemann

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