An Interview with Dr. Elaine Storkey, president, Tearfund UK

Dr. Elaine Storkey is one of the most experienced writers and speakers in relating the Christian Gospel to contemporary culture. She was named as one of the 100 women public intellectuals by The Guardian. She has a background in philosophy and sociology and has many years experience of teaching in the UK and overseas (most recently with the King's College, London). For 7 years she was the Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

She is the UK President of Tearfund, a Vice President of the University of Gloucestershire, Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and a member of the Crown Appointments Commission.

A prolific author, Elaine is the author of numerous books including Created or Constructed: The Great Gender Debate Origins of Difference. She has written hundreds of articles for newspaper and journals. Her most recent publication, with the University of Salford, addresses issues of helping business leaders explore and apply Christian ethics in their work. She has been a columnist for The Independent for many years. Elaine takes many opportunities to talk about Tearfund's work in her speaking engagements, for example on the World Service, on Radio Four's Thought for the Day and at Christian festivals. In her role as President, Elaine has visited Tearfund projects in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Mexico and also to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Dr. Elaine Storkey was recently in India to deliver the Lecture on "Gender and Leadership" organized by EFICOR (Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief). Christian Today got an opportunity to speak to her. The following are excerpts from the interview on Feb. 9,2006

1. Can you just give us a brief overview of what Tearfund is doing?

Ans – We have so many different areas where Tearfund is working. For instance, we have the Disaster Management and Relief teams that have responded in nations like in Congo where outbreak of war has given rise to the problem of refugees. They need houses, they need wells, etc. So a lot of our work includes doing those kind of structural things. On the other hand, we are looking into the problems created by the tsunami in Asia and Tearfund is putting in a lot of disaster relief efforts in that area.

Another area is working with partners like EFICOR here in Delhi and also sponsoring projects that they initiate whether those are educational projects or projects that empower women, or projects of slums. We have also undertaken projects concerning health and sanitation and community building. Many people are looking for voice, not just in political but also in nonpolitical spheres and legal structure as well, because the systems are exhaustive.


2. Is Tearfund more inclined to work with NGOs or the Government?

Ans – We've partners that we've built with for long time, so the easiest things for us to do is to work with partners and there are so many of them and we are still looking for funds. So it does not matter whether they are big NGOs or whether they are small, whether they are rich or prosperous kind of organization or whether they are related to HIV/AIDS or something. The size is not important. What is important is the native project, whether or not they can team work with the people and whether it is a well established network or not.

3. What plans do you have in mind for India for the year 2006?

Ans – I think there would be some massive changes in possibilities of another disaster, so we would be marking out the areas that are low lying or coastal and remote areas and the areas where climate change is going to make a big difference to the people living there. We need to do a lot of work in those critical areas where climate changes are drastic so that the people are more prepared, and there won't be so many deaths even if those kind of things happen again. But those are just a few areas. We will also be focusing in areas of empowering women and in areas of safeguarding children. There are really good signs of improvement in funds that we've spent. For example, today we looked in some of the slum areas where infant mortality and maternal mortality rate has completely disappeared over 3 years because of funding from partners. So the year 2006 is really good as because we are on our way to those Millennium goals the 1st one being the progress of those in the third world – progressing but still not quiet achieving that.

4. What has appealed you most about India?

Ans – India is the most enigmatic society that exists on Earth because it has both the incredible extremes. It has extremes of cosmopolitan, professional, young and dynamic population. It is a land of enormous opportunities, enormous growth.

5. What made you join Tearfund?

Ans – Joining Tearfund has been a part of journey of life for me. When the Christian faith grips you, when Jesus takes hold of you, then everything changes, every part of life and it gets a new meaning. You look at it from a new, a different dimension. I have been in the academic field for long and also have done quite a lot of work in empowering women. My husband, who has always been passionate about development work has also encouraged me a lot. So when Tearfund came to me and said, “Read this thing…this is your next calling,” I almost fell off my chair. I felt that this was only the half–truth and I went and prayed and I realized that the Gospel was being pushed into an area in which it has never been moved. And I think this is what I want to do for the next ten years at least. It is the integrated holistic view of the Gospel – that there is no area of life that does not belong to Jesus.

6. Which Bible verse, according to you, best fits the situation in India?

Ans – I think it is the Colossian 1 – the whole idea being that Jesus is the image of the invisible god and the one who is before all things and the one in whom all things hold together. In India, if Jesus is in the center, then everything will start altogether in a new kind of way and be integrated. With the intervention of the Holy Spirit, Jesus can become the integrating feature, the integrating factor in Indian life and then all things will start coming together.