Source: WebIndia123
Wire Service: IANS
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=119564&cat=India
On September 23, 2005 the Indo-Asian News Service reported, "Indian spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Friday announced $1 million in aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina that battered the US in August.
'Our Amritanandamayi Centre in the US will hand over this amount to the US government,' Mata told reporters at a press conference in her Vallikavu ashram near here.
She also said so far her ashram has completed 1,200 of the 6,200 tsunami-relief houses it has undertaken to construct throughout India and Sri Lanka.
'Even though the ashram has pledged Rs.1 billion in tsunami relief aid, the effective value of the amount is closer to Rs.2 billion because so much of the work is being done by our volunteers,' said Amma, as she is popularly known.
She said her ashram was helping construct new houses in tsunami-affected areas in Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and also in Sri Lanka. India lost 10,000 people to the Dec 26 disaster."