ICDP in Ethiopia: Teka and Askale
Askale, Virginia and Teka in Addis Ababa
On a recent trip to Ethiopia, Virginia Thomas met the two remaining Subud members working for children and youth with ICDP in the country. Virginia explains:
I had the privilege of meeting Teka Zewdie, Professor of Psychology at the University of Addis Abba, and his wife Askale Baby Jean, who is a secretary at a wholesale enterprise in Addis Ababa recently. Teka and Askale have three children and are the only Subud members in Ethiopia. They are committed to taking ICDP forward in this country where children and youth need it so much. According to Teka “ICDP is a cost-effective way to improve childcare, and doesn’t require expensive materials. It is an easily adaptive method — adaptable to all cultures and contexts. It is a good way to promote a sense of empowerment in caregivers, parents and anyone working with children in need.”
Teka came to Subud and ICDP work at the same time. He was a Ph.D. student at the University of Bergen, where Rukman Hundeide, founder of ICDP International, was his supervisor. According to Teka, “since I was trained in the ICDP, we have done trainings across Ethiopia—with nurses, parents, community leaders, social workers and traditional educators in churches and mosques.” In the 1990s, Teka formed a team of 8 ICDP trainers. Two of them have since passed away, and others left the country. At the request of Rukman Hundeide and ICDP International, SDIA has agreed to help revive ICDP in Ethiopia by covering the cost of bringing Teka to an ICDP Southern Africa Network meeting this October in Maputo, Mozambique. There he will get a chance to exchange experiences and good practices with ICDP trainers from across the Southern African region. Teka is interested working with the Blue Nile Children’s Organisation, which would be a good partner in the revival of ICDP in Ethiopia.
Member News
Food crisis in Tanzania affects local Subud members
Two visitors from an American NGO with Roland Maanga.
A food crisis has affected parts of Tanzania as persistent drought is affecting the region, leading to local food shortage and sky-rocketing prices. Tanzanian grain from the recent harvest was sold to neighbouring drought-affected countries like Kenya, leaving many Tanzanians without food. Roland Maanga, a Subud member in Mwika, says that the 15 members are travelling to Malawi and Zambia to buy food at more reasonable prices. Individual travel is a very costly solution.
Our brothers and sisters need our help now, but we also need to think about the longer term, so that we don't create a distortion by only assisting a small group of Subud members. Rather, we want to help the Subud members find a way to help themselves and the surrounding community at the same time.
SDIA and Roland agreed to a short-term and a longer-term approach to the current food crisis. To purchase food for Subud families immediately, SDIA sent $1000 from its Emergency Fund for direct food aid. This amount has been re-imbursed to SDIA by the Subud Emergency Fund which looks after the needs of individual Subud members.
The funds will be sufficient to buy several large bags of beans, maize, oil and other basics for the families. For a more sustainable solution, we will assist them create a food cooperative open to all. Roland will discuss with his community the possibility of jointly covering the cost of hiring a truck to purchase and transport food in bulk so that the whole community could benefit from lower food prices. If the community agrees, SDIA will raise start-up funds to get the cooperative going.
SD Indonesia Moving Ahead!
SD Indonesia offered trauma training for volunteers helping with
emergency relief in Java.
Once again SD Indonesia is responding to an earthquake emergency in Java with the financial support of Subud Japan. Congratulations to the SD Indonesia team on going from strength to strength as they move forward as the umbrella organization of SD activities in Indonesia and take on responding to emergencies like this. They have a new Executive Officer, Prasetya Subekti, and an Australian volunteer, Alison Martin, who helps with communications, and a new website, www.susiladharma.or.id
This new August issue of the newsletter is full of interesting information featuring
- Spotlight on Koperasi Susila Bhakti: Hope for East Java Youth
- New Plan for Cipanas Children’s Village
- Free General Check-up for Sponsorship Beneficiaries Reducing Mercury Emissions and Engaging the Community
- Commemoration of Bapak Subuh
- Staff Profile: Yunika Kurniyatiningsih
YUM Cipanas Children’s Village Changes Direction
Medical staff provided check up for the residents of the Children’s
Village.
Triggered by a project evaluation provided by SDIA and the Blond Trust, a plan of action has been created by YUM to convert the Children’s Village from a home for destitute children into a community development centre that assists families. The centre will provide opportunities for families, mothers and youths to develop and strengthen skills that will enable them to later provide for their families.
The evaluation was the first time YUM had become aware that international donors and implementation agencies were pushing for destitute and orphan children to be looked after in a family-based environment. Even the Indonesian government at that time had not started acting on this, but now they are drafting a new law to assist children within families. This was not the case previously and that’s why many single-parent families who could not afford to feed their children, let alone put them through schools, would place them in what are called “orphanages.” Recent research from leading children’s rights organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children showed that, where appropriate, children should be raised within their own families rather than in institutions. The strong bond of family remains a key factor in a child’s emotional development. In addition to this, YUM has also recognized that the cost of running the Children’s Village has proven to be unsustainable, especially in the current economic crisis.
Puppeteers Without Borders in Italy, Kenya, India
Puppeteers without Borders trained teachers in Italy.
Erica Sapir sent us an update on her training activities with puppets.
In August I went to Arco, near the Dolomites in north Italy and took part in a puppet Festival with a four-day workshop for a group of sixteen teachers. The subject of the workshop was ”Working with Puppets to Introduce and Practice Non-Violent-Communication.” The teachers were very motivated, talented, and had fun. At the same time they learned about a new way of communicating that could have an influence on their private and professional lives. Some of them told me at the end of the workshop that it had been a life-changing experience.
My friends in Israel are preparing a workshop in Kenya for professional puppeteers that will be supported by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The subject of the workshop will be “working with puppets with children in hospitals.” On the horizon is a trip to India to work in Madurai with a local Susila Dharma projects called the Centre for Culture and Development (CCD), created and directed by Samy Arul. For the training session we may have financing from Susila Dharma France.
Reinvigorating Amanecer – report on July’s volunteer camp
Summer volunteers work with the children at Fundacion Amanecer.
In the last issue of this eNews Alexandra Woodward promised a full report on the volunteer Camp at Amanecer in Colombia which is now on the website:
From June 24th to July 12th, 2009, Amanecer was filled with young voices, youthful energy, and the clanging of construction work. For the first annual International Volunteer Work Camp, co-sponsored by SDIA and SYA, Fundacion Amanecer was selected to benefit from this unique volunteer experience. The camp drew 22 volunteers under the age of 35 from Australia, England, the USA, various Colombian cities, and Amanecer itself. Every day they worked to rebuild a dilapidated school building and then to host educational activities for the local school children.
The volunteers started work at 8 am, finished around 5 pm, and then hung out doing various activities until the early hours of the morning. The beneficiaries were Amanecer’s two schools: Semillitas, a program for toddlers from severely disadvantaged families in the nearby areas, and Nuestra Señora de Fatimah, a small school for children under 12 years of age that utilizes more creative educational strategies and has a more hands-on approach than the government schools.
Read Alex Woodward’s full article on our blog.
From the Inner to the Outer: Subud Cali puts “Susila Dharma” to work
Daniela Urutia and Machrus Garces are proposing a model for helping one another in our Subud groups and they are starting with their group, Subud Cali in Colombia. They came to their model through simple observation: “We are often unaware of the difficult situations faced by Subud members in their daily lives. Sometimes Subud members abandon the group and we don’t know why. If we approach them, we’ll find that these people are silently experiencing difficult situations and that there isn’t support from the group.”
According to Daniela and Machrus, until now, the development of Subud has been a highly individual process, based in each person’s latihan. We don't often consider the importance and benefits of participating in the group’s social and collective life, reaching out to and helping one another in a systematic way. For this reason, they are proposing an initiative to strenghten the group's capacity to help find meaningful solutions to the real life problems faced by its members. The initiative includes the following elements:
- Identify and understand the situation of Subud members in the groups, through learning each other's stories, problems and challenges.
- Collectively build solutions or alternative solutions to the particular situations identified, using the social capital that exists in Subud — this includes all group members, helpers, entrepreneurs, etc.
- Create a local support fund for the development of solutions: this could be for training, entrepreneurship or other start-up activities.
- Monitor and evaluate the development of agreed solutions. Have we solved the problem? How is the member doing?
If you would like to know more about putting SD to work in our groups, please contact Machrus, agarcesll@hotmail.com, or Daniela, danielau9@hotmail.com.
Illène Pevec and Girasole
A local Colorado magazine called Edible Aspen recently published an article about Illène Pevec, founder of A Child’s Garden of Peace project in Brazil. We have reprinted the first and last paragraphs here.
Illène Pevec with handfulls of Jerusalem Artichokes, or Girasole
“Here is a food crop and a person who, individually and in relation to others, exemplify the kind of energy we need to survive the coming challenges in our world. Both are gifts, should we be lucky enough to be in their generous wake. One is a woman: Illène Pevec a humble matriarch, a loving mother and grandmother, community activist and friend to many in the Roaring Fork Valley. The other is a tuber called girasole, Italian for ‘turning to the sun.’…
“…If you don’t know Illène, hopefully you know someone like her in your community. Find these people and learn from them. They are the few who understand the need to shift our values and who celebrate the connections and subsequent bounty associated with guiding people to the land. If there is hope for us, it is in our healthy relationships with the soil and plants like girasole, with stewards of the garden and our victuals. And with mentors like Illène Pevec, who give wholly of themselves as they — as we all must do — turn toward the sun.”
Fabulous Fundraisers
Canada: What a way to celebrate 50 years!
Michael and Belva Thomas celebrated 50 years ago too!
On August 1st, 2009, Michael and Belva Thomas, among the founders of Montreal’s thriving Subud group, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, surrounded by 120 of their closest family and friends. One thing that was different about this event was the fact that the couple asked their guests not to given them any gifts. “We don’t need more things or gizmos! We need to put people’s good intentions to work to make a difference in people’s lives!” says Belva. Instead of bringing gifts, they asked their guests to make a donation to the Belva and Michael Thomas Education and Child Development Fund, under the umbrella of Susila Dharma International.
The fund will be used to support the right to education for children who would not otherwise be able to attend school. It honours the deep commitment and decades of work that the couple has put into improving and enriching public education through teaching and the development of special programs designed to open new worlds of knowledge for thousands of children. The celebration raised $4170 US, which will go to support an SD project of their choosing. What a way to celebrate 50 years of marriage while supporting SD educational projects!
Click here to donate to the Belva and Michael Thomas Education and Child Development Fund.
Netherlands: A Gift of Ramadan
Mitsubishi Diesel bus can hold 12 passengers.
Fundación Amanecer has a new school bus thanks to the fundraising efforts of Susila Dharma Netherlands. To carry out their educational and cultural programs it’s absolutely necessary that the Fundación has its own means of transport. We got support though from SD Ireland, SD Spain, SD Netherlands, SDIA and a few Subud members but most of the support came from outside Subud. In her report Rossana Silva, chair of Fundacion Amanecer, says that, “…during the Panamerican gathering in 2007, Lawrence Leetz saw that there was a great need to improve the transportation situation of the Fundación and decided that ‘the best transport is to have something new.’
“Now we have a new Mitsubishi Diesel for twelve passengers, thanks to the joint effort from all of you. Rossana sent us pictures of these laughing children with their parents who are very grateful for this present.”
USA: “Naked Ladies” in Portland
Americans are very good at creative fundraising and here is another example sent to us by Marilyn Schirk of SD USA. “Naked Ladies” is a type of fundraiser where women bring any clothes or other items (jewellery, books, etc.) that they are willing to trade and they are put together in a large pile. Anyone can try on anything from the pile and, if they like it, they can buy it. Everyone has a good time and stays appropriately dressed!
Naked Ladies has come and gone for another year, and it was quite a success. We had a group of about 15 women in attendance, including some non-Subud sisters. Wonderful treasures exchanged hands, a delicious potluck was eaten, and information about Mithra Foundation in India was shared. We cleared $500.00 at the event.
It is events like this one that have identified Subud Portland as being one of the “Susila Dharma Centers” in our country. Along with Subud New York, Crestone, CO, and a few other centers, we are setting the pace for Subud USA in demonstrating our awareness of Susila Dharma and its crucially important role in Subud. Thank you to all who brought clothes and other treasurers, and who donated their food, time, energy, and financial resources to Naked Ladies II. It was very greatly appreciated.
Norway: Selling Bricks for the Yenge Clinic Wall
Clinic Yenge provides maternal and child health care.
This year, SDIA approached Leonore Waage, Chair of SD Norway, about raising money to build a wall around Yenge Clinic in the DR Congo, to increase security and protect staff and patients. According to Yenge Clinic leader Zola Ferdinand, “last year we found a dead baby in our washroom. I know that this baby was not from anyone in our clinic, so we need a wall to keep others off the premises. If such a thing were to happen again, we could be in serious trouble with the police!”
So building a wall around the clinic is a priority for protecting its work and good reputation. The total cost of the wall is $12,100 (USD), of which SDIA asked SD Norway if they could raise $6000. Leonore wrote back with this great fundraising idea:
We see that there is a need for the wall and we would like to contribute. However, the requested amount is too high for us to cover right away. What we would like to do is to encourage everybody to participate in a fundraiser. We will invite the members in Norway to buy bricks for the wall. (In Norway each brick will cost 100 Norwegian crowns which is about $20 US). SD Norway will start the donations by buying bricks for 1000 USD and then invite other SD Nationals to also encourage their members to buy bricks according to their capacity.
To buy one or more bricks for the Yenge Clinic Wall go to the Donate Now! section of our website and select “Member Project” from the pull down menu, then enter “Bricks for Yenge” in the field below. You will be transferred to the secure Paypal site where you will be able to complete your donation. Many thanks for helping SD Norway and SDIA build this protective wall together!
NEWS FLASH: Motorcycle for Yenge Clinic!
New motorcycle purchased for Yenge Clinic with the help of Dharma
Trading in the USA.
In an earlier eNews we announced that this clinic needed a motorcycle to carry out community health program in the Kinshasa area. We now have the picture of the motorcycle and this message from Zola:
I wrote to you in my last correspondence that I had not yet started to use the motorbike because I had not yet received my permit to do so. The Ministry of Transport had suspended temporarily the delivery of this document, but now they have already begun giving permits again and we are waiting our turn. Nonetheless, we want to confirm that the motorcycle will allow us better to accomplish our functions as a Health Centre with a community of 19,064 inhabitants, mainly very poor families, in vaccination-delivery, training in disease prevention and emergency care. For more details, I would ask that you be patient as these will be sent shortly. Many thanks to the owners and staff of Dharma Trading (USA) who have made the purchase of this motorcycle possible!
International Links
UN Human Rights Council
In June Katherine Carré attended a panel discussion on Human Rights and Climate Change. Full report from Katherine on the SDIA UN page.
In her opening remarks the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Kyung-wha Kang said the panel discussion was addressing one of the most pressing global challenges the world faced today. High hopes were pinned on the negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which are expected to culminate at the Copenhagen Conference in December this year. She warned against the grave human rights consequences of a failure to take decisive action now
United Nations Social Forum
Mardiyah Tarantino at the UN Social Forum in Geneva.
Mardiyah Tarantino from the Board of SD USA attended the recent UN Social Forum in Geneva and sends us a report:
I first have to tell you how impressed I was with the cathedral-like hall, the domed ceiling, and the semi-circles of desks looking down onto the large screen. The architecture, rather than being overwhelming, gave one a feeling of equality and lightness of being.
Of course the proceedings were very long – three entire days. Many details and statistics concerning poverty and hunger in the different countries of the world were shocking - and shockingly repetitive. “Ten Million children are dying, and millions more are starving,” (ILO). All aspects of the poverty issue: food distribution, AIDS, Human Rights, the disabled below the poverty level, health, gender equality, childbirth and pregnancy, the aged, and the environment, were touched upon.
From the Office
Candidates for the Board and Chair of SDIA
We have a few nominations for the SDIA Board of Directors but want to get more; so, please consider whether you, or someone you know, would be suitable to work with the international Susila Dharma organization.
“The challenges of being the Chairperson of SDIA for me arise from keeping up with what is happening in a complex international association… However the blessings of working for Susila Dharma are huge.”
For more information email info@susiladharma.org
New Zealand January 2010
We are starting to put together the SDIA sponsored program – workshops, panel discussions, networking meetings, presentations, displays - for the Subud World Congress working with Miranda Wilson. We invite any of you with knowledge and information related to Susila Dharma that you would like to share with Congress participants to contact the us soon: virginia@susiladharma.org or rosanna@susiladharma.org
Thank You All!
To the latest round of PTSW donors who together have helped SDIA to raise an additional $10,160 for SDIA’s Endowment Fund. By helping to build SDIA’s Endowment Fund, you are ensuring that we will be able to assist and support SD projects in the years to come. Thank you!
To Oliver Zielke founder of Web Networks who has become the fifth enterprise to join the Enterprise Sponsorship Program.
To Hadrian! Our summer volunteer Hadrian Holloway worked hard with Rosanna Hille while he was in Vancouver. Hadrian helped us by making suggestions and upgrading the website, writing articles, and interviewing our enterprise sponsors. And what did Hadrian think?
Working with the SDIA office team this summer was an absolute joy and a privilege. It was wonderful to see the amazing work they do, and to get involved in the current goings-on of the Network was fascinating. On a personal level the experience I got was invaluable, learning new skills and gaining the confidence to write articles and conduct interviews. Applying my skills to new tasks was so refreshing from university work. What was most valuable was to experience how easy it is to get involved. I would recommend the experience to all Subud Youth.
The SDIA Network eNews is published once a month from information sent in to the office.
We welcome news items. Deadline for submissions is the middle of each month.