Susila Dharma International Association (SDIA) is a network of SD national organizations and associate member projects from 26 countries. We believe that by working together in an atmosphere of mutual respect we can achieve positive social, environmental and economic change that benefits our world. In 2020, SDIA was ranked 261 out of the top 500 global NGOs by NGO Advisor.
SDIA works globally for just and sustainable development through:
Our members initiate local, culturally appropriate projects in four main areas: healthcare, education, sustainable livelihoods and protection of the environment.
SDIA works to build the capacity of our members to develop and sustain their organizations and demonstrate results. We provide:
SDIA promotes awareness of key global issues such as gender equality, child rights, environmental sustainability and innovative and effective development practices.
To improve the ability of our members to implement projects, we mentor and engage local trainers to assist with needs assessments, fundraising and project management, monitoring and evaluation. We facilitate specific training events on good practices in the fields of health, education, community development and environmentally sustainable practices.
In recent years with assistance of SDIA and other partners, Susila Dharma Congo has become an NGO leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo. SD Congo now constructs community-led health centres negotiated with the communities they serve and various levels of governments. SD Congo is the international liaison for Congolese projects under its umbrella and administers all foreign funds for project support.
SDIA supported Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta to evaluate their work and deliver a local conference for all stakeholders on governance in Kalimantan, Indonesia. With the support our funding partners, in 2014 SDIA launched a programme to identify strategies to improve quality education and care of children with projects in Indonesia, Paraguay, Colombia, DR Congo and Portugal.
Some of our project members provide training to fellow SDIA members and others –
SDIA builds its global presence through its affiliation with the World Subud Association and its consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). SDIA is also affiliated with the UN Department of Public Information, NGO Section.
Started in 1968, SDIA now operates from Canada and supports 21 national Susila Dharma organizations and 26 associate member projects. SDIA was registered as a non-profit organization in the State of Virginia, USA in 1994 with the charitable tax number 98-0156249.
Every year SDIA organizes an international networking conference in a different part of the world. During the conference our members and others who are interested in development work share experiences, expertise and best practices about issues that concern them. Through its links with United Nations agencies and other organisations, SDIA brings knowledge and information on worldwide development trends, ideas and news to our projects.
SDIA is an affiliate of the World Subud Association. Subud is an international, spiritual association of people who share a unique experience known as the ‘latihan’ or exercise. We are an association of men and women of all nationalities, all beliefs and faiths, and all cultures, with a common aim: to improve ourselves as human beings through our worship of God. Subud is not a religion and requires no study or teacher.
SDIA and its members share a common vision of development that goes from the deeply personal to the community, to the institutional and global levels. SDIA and its members have adopted a network wide Code of Conduct.
i. Vision of Development
We, the SD Network, give priority to the needs, aspirations and participation of the individuals and communities on whose behalf we are working. We recognize the importance of fundamental human rights, environmental sustainability and accountability to those we serve. We work to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to combat discrimination in all its forms, including on the basis of race, gender, caste, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We understand development as a positive process of human, social, cultural, environmental, economic and political transformation.
ii. Community Participation and Knowledge Sharing
We are committed to participatory and inclusive approaches to development.
As a network we freely share our information and knowledge, continuously learning from each other we base our decisions on mutual understanding and respect. We aim to learn from our mistakes and value our success, no matter how small. We are committed to monitoring and evaluating our activities in order to continually improve our development practices.
iii. Partnership
Partnerships form the basis for trust and sound development practice. Our partnerships respect one another’s autonomy and constraints and are built on honesty, accountability and transparency. All partners strive for better understanding and appreciation of one another. We reach out to and work in collaboration with institutions that share our aims and objectives.
iv. Transparent and Accountable Management and Reporting
We are committed to transparent and accountable reporting, both between members of the network, and towards beneficiaries, donors and the general public. We seek to identify the appropriate scale and terms of financial support on a case by case basis.
v. Personal Responsibility
In addition to being well-informed and learning from others, we strive to trust our own perceptions and follow our inner feelings as development practitioners. Each human being is responsible for being part of the change processes we envisage for the world.
Vincent Mount – Chair – United Kingdom
Vincent is a practising landscape architect with over 20 years in the field, working in the UK, USA, and Colombia. He has design and project management skills that have enabled him to carry out and deliver projects from inception all the way to implementation, including many community and public realm improvements. He’s traveled widely and is happily married with four children. He’s a keen musician and song-writer and has volunteered and managed volunteers through his work. His interest in Susila Dharma is in engaging young people and becoming more active together to raise the profile of humanitarian projects around the world. He is keen to encourage people in their creative and courageous efforts. Vincent has also served as chair of Susila Dharma Britain.
Rifka Several – WSA Chair – USA
Rifka’s early career focused on research-based curriculum development for early child education and elementary grades. In this capacity, she was a Mentor Teacher for the State of California and established an experimental program for children in grades 1 – 5. She has also worked as property manager for two California projects in the Sierra Mountains: Sequoia Resort and Seven Circles Retreat Center.
Most recently, Rifka supported a community college foundation, securing program grants and scholarships from community organizations and businesses. Her work also encompassed the Faculty and Classified Employee Organizations, and college professional development programs. In Subud, Rifka has been continuously involved in Susila Dharma USA for decades, currently as the office manager. She has served Subud USA as an executive member and national helper.
Rifka lives in Bay Point, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, with her grandchildren nearby and frequent visitors.
Aminah Herrman – USA
Aminah Herrman studied Early Childhood Development and Art at Humboldt State University and College of The Redwoods in Humboldt County, California. She was a founding member of a private school called Centering School that focused on utilizing the arts as a tool for learning traditional subjects.
Aminah set up an art business with her husband that created decor for national restaurant chains. She also managed a gallery that had its emphasis on spirituality and held seminars on creativity.
Corian Hugenholtz – Netherlands
After obtaining a Master’s degree in Biology from the Wageningen University of Rural Studies, Corian started her professional career in project management. She worked as an independent consultant, trainer, and project manager, mainly for government organisations.
In 2008, she started to work for GreenWish, an organisation supporting grassroots initiatives in The Netherlands that is run by Dutch citizens all over the world. Corian helped many initiatives to draw up plans, find funding, get their organisations up and running, and, if necessary, counseled project leaders when they felt it all became a bit much. She also ran several government grant programs supporting grassroots initiatives with small amounts of seed money. After taking early retirement,she now serves as treasurer on the GreenWish board of trustees.
In 2022, Corian took up the role of Susila Dharma chair in the Netherlands. She immediately became involved in the Ukraine support team. Working together with Susila Dharma (and other Subud) sisters and brothers all over the world was a great experience. She is very happy to be able to continue applying her skills and experience as a member of the SDIA Board of Directors.
Danica Robertson de Wild – Ecuador
Danica moved to Ecuador in 1997 and lives in the Tumbaco Valley, near Quito with her husband and three children. Originally from Scotland, she worked in Wales as an Outdoor Pursuits Instructor for Personal and Management Development courses, furthering her interest with a B.A (Hons.) degree in Recreation Management and then a post-graduate certificate in Primary Education.
Her developing interest in ‘alternative’ education took her to Ecuador where she later accompanied her three children in a Pestalozzi Foundation ‘Centre for Autonomous Activities’ for 11 years and helped to create further alternative learning initiatives with non-directive adult accompaniment and prepared learning environments.
Danica is the vice-president of Logichem Solutions which designs and produces healthy water, and non-toxic biodegradable cleaning and disinfectant products. She has been the representative of SD Ecuador since November 2018, supporting affiliated Susila Dharma members and other social projects.
Osanna Favre – Australia
Osanna holds a Masters degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Western Sydney and has worked across both private and public health sectors as a registered physiotherapist in her home country, Australia.
She has been involved with SDIA for over 12 years leading the coordination and facilitation of the Human Force Program which brings together youth to take action in sustainable development. She has traveled extensively and worked with many SDIA member projects that the program has been hosted by over the years across South America, Asia and the United States.
Her interest in Susila Dharma is to continue to create opportunities to empower more young people to harness their skills and talents to be positive change makers in the world.
Mary Salisbury – USA
Mary is a retired professor of teacher credentialling for secondary school teachers. She developed several innovative programs including one which taught future teachers how to teach their academic subjects while addressing the needs of multicultural, multilingual students. The aim was to provide students with a safe learning environment and to give all students an equal opportunity to learn. She believes that teachers’ professional development is the key to developing compassionate students who are able to successfully contribute to a larger community. Mary has had two Fulbright-Hays Scholarships: one to Uganda and one to live with the Hmong in Southern China.
Mary is an accomplished pianist and has truly enjoyed composing music since she was four years old. Mary and her husband live in California. Together they have six children and six grandchildren.
Purnama Widjajakusumah – Indonesia
Purnama has an architectural background and has worked in the international engineering consultant field for 25 years in the project management area. He has experience handling many industrial food and beverage factory design and construction projects in Indonesia and some educational buildings.
He also spends his time as a volunteer working in the social sector for health, education, and community empowerment at Susila Dharma Indonesia for 4 years and at Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM) from 2015 until now.
After retiring from consulting work, he is now interested in starting businesses in the property sector, distributing frozen food, and with his wife working on waste processing to become organic fertilizer. Another thing that is also of concern to him is developing a social enterprise to fund social programs at YUM.
Virginia Hamida Thomas – Executive Director – Canada
Virginia was appointed Executive Director of SDIA in January 2007. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at McGill University and has more than 20 years of experience as a senior researcher and programme evaluator. She has worked for numerous international organizations including UNICEF, UNHCR, UNOCHA on issues of child protection and gender equality in development and humanitarian settings. Her joy and commitment are to helping people, through developing their organizations, to bring their skills and abilities to influencing public policy and governance and improving lives and sustainable livelihoods.
Isabel Ana Maria Alvarez – Bookkeeping and Administration – Canada
Isabel’s working experience is focused on the administrative and accounting areas with more than 15 years’ experience. She is now working part-time as an Accounting and Financial Clerk at McGill University in Montréal Canada. Isabel has also worked with the committees of the two Subud groups where she has been a member – Pereira in Colombia and Montréal in Canada.
Margarita Fiscó – Publications & Network Coordinator – Chile
Margarita holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design with a postgraduate degree in Commercial Management and Marketing Management. She has extensive experience in the field of communications and publishing, thanks to her work as Editor-in-Chief and Marketing Manager in two important magazines in Latin America. As a designer, she has had the opportunity to collaborate in different projects for organizations such as SICA International, The Muhammad Subuh Foundation, The Guerrand-Hèrmes Foundation for Peace, among others. Margarita believes in and supports the values and principles upheld by SDIA – empathy, compassion, humility, kindness, gratitude, child protection and sustainability – as fundamental pillars for the development of a better society.
Isidro Jimenez – Media Coordinator – Ecuador
Isidro was born in Armenia – Colombia, in 1998. After graduating from l’Alliance Française with a diploma in French language studies, Isidro moved to Ecuador, where he joined RET, an international organization dedicated to helping people in need. As a volunteer, he formed a youth group that carried out activities aimed at helping immigrants and minorities to adapt and develop livelihood skills for a better quality of life. He was then appointed RET’s Youth Ambassador for Ecuador, which allowed him to participate in several training courses, including the first youth ambassador training in Mardin, Turkey. Later, he applied for a government program to teach foreign languages to low-income children. After finishing the program, he became a volunteer with BFIF (Kalimantan, Indonesia), where he worked for a year and a half as a Fundraiser and Media Coordinator. Isidro then spent a year as an SDIA Board Member before joining the staff in a Communications & Networking role.
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