Category Archives: About Us

Our Mission

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k640_img_5677Susila Dharma USA…

 

  • Values and promotes social justice and equality through community programs that promote harmony within the cultures they serve. Key focus is placed on development that respects the dignity of each individual, while honoring and nurturing existing cultures.
  • Endorses capacity-building activities that are locally initiated and committed to serving local populations through interactive participation and collaborative partnerships. We view humanitarian service as participatory ─ when people give to other people, mutually transforming relationships occur.
  • Fosters programs dedicated to social and humanitarian activities including health, education, and long-term community development. We promote activities that are visionary and creative, while also being accountable and sustainable.
  • Maintains ongoing partnerships with member programs through personal communication between volunteer leaders and Susila Dharma USA. We support the program leaders who inspire us and transform the lives of others─one by one─with compassion and care.
  • Strives to bring hope to people around the globe, and seeks to unite people from all cultures. We believe that shared humanity is a prime motivator for helping individuals to take action that betters their communities.

Our Vision

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our visionPeople, families, and communities in need. Around the world, every day, individuals are suffering. They are sick, hungry, hurt, dislocated — in need of basic services, education, self development, community. They also need help and nurturing, compassion, someone to talk to, a sense of belonging. The programs that Susila Dharma USA supports are diverse but they all have one thing in common: they recognize and share the one human spirit.

Transforming lives and communities. Self-sufficiency, confidence, and hope. There is no one profile of an individual or community that receives the benefits of a Susila Dharma USA-sponsored initiative. The results are multi-faceted. Many children are able to attend school, receive healthcare, and experience creative growth as a result of Susila Dharma funding. Through education, training, and microcredit, women heads-of-households become self-sufficient. Families reconnect with themselves as well as with their cultures through participating in a variety of community programs and activities. Those affected by war, famine, illness, disaster, disease, dislocation, and domestic violence receive physical assistance and regain emotional and spiritual well-being.

Susila Dharma USA initiatives are:

Holistic and Diverse — We provide seed money for and support a wide variety of humanitarian programs that truly transform individual lives and communities in diverse ways – and in many geographies. Susila Dharma USA has chosen a holistic approach that addresses multiple challenges rather than focusing exclusively in only one area. This expanded approach and diversity also creates a wider path and multiple channels for donors to contribute.

Locally Initiated — Those who live and work in local communities, and therefore understand the true needs and environmental conditions, serve the local communities with true dedication, compassion and inspiration, engaging long-term, direct participation and fostering empowerment of community members.

Multi-cultural — Leveraging Susila Dharma International’s worldwide system expands the multi-cultural experience, gathering wisdom and knowledge across all cultures, environments, and religions. This helps bridge geographies, languages, and other differences to create harmony, restore true culture, and build solutions to world problems. Particularly those that afflict the poor and underprivileged.

Worldwide — Susila Dharma’s reach is wide, and our system shares and offers educational, professional, and financial resources through our network of national humanitarian wings. We speak many languages, share skills, and work together on many projects – some of our programs are supported or recognized by the United Nations as models of community building.

Committed to Excellence — Susila Dharma USA is committed to excellence in both vision and practice. We carefully monitor the humanitarian programs we support to ensure sustainability, while working to build internal capabilities and the professional skills to maintain and expand our vision and mission in the world.

Board of Directors

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Fauziyah Sue Ishak    Chair

 Fauziyah has worked in education for over twenty years: in the New York City schools, with the Peace Corps in Bangladesh, and currently as a homeschool teacher. She has organized and participated in various humanitarian projects, and also has a degree in Cultural Anthropology. Fauziyah lives in New Jersey (close to NYC) with her husband, two sons, and step-daughter.
Michael Barber                Vice Chair

Michael Barber

 Michael’s degree is in Education but he spent the first half of his life as an aspiring singer/songwriter and the second half in IT, retiring in 2015. Now he studies jazz piano and serves as a local helper in Subud New York. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Christine.
Jane Katz

Jane Katz

 Jane retired in 2017 after 20 years teaching special education, young children with autism and other special needs. She enjoyed this work and was interested in all aspects of it. Retirement has brought enjoyment of a broader range of experiences, more time outside, hiking, and gardening. She looks forward to serving on the Susila Dharma Board and being useful to the worthy projects SD supports. Jane lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Luqman. Between them they have five children and eight grandchildren. Before coming to Los Angeles in 1999, Jane was a member of the Denver Subud group, functioning as helper and treasurer.
Kailani Brugger Ward

Kailani Brugger Ward

 Kailani grew up in Wisma Subud. She is the eldest daughter of Sofyan and Halimah Brugger, wife to Matthew Ward and mother to Mahallia, Madelyn, Rohima, Bella, Alexis and Benjamin. She currently lives in Winston-Salem NC where she serves as a local helper.

She is a ballet teacher and has taught dance for 25 years.
Oswald Norton

 Oswald is a retired IT Program Manager. He lives with his wife Rayma in Bellevue, WA where they are a part of the Subud Greater Seattle group.

Opened in October of 1976, Oswald has worked in both the committee and helper spaces. He has done this work in the spirit of trying to give back to the organization. He knows and acknowledges that it was only through the efforts of other committee and helper members who came before him that he too was able to receive the latihan. This is his first experience working with Susila Dharma
Mary Salisbury

 Mary is a retired professor of teacher credentialing 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. 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 truly enjoys composing music since she was three years old. She also loves to cook and finds great pleasure in feeding anyone anywhere. Mary and her husband Theo Salisbury live in Sacramento, California. Together they have six children and six grandchildren.
Halimah Brugger

 I was very fortunate to have lived in Wisma Subud a long time as a teacher and to have witnessed the very beginnings of Subud charitable work in that country. I remember the shoeshine boys in the marketplace, and the first orphanage in the mountains. That was the beginning of present day YUM. My husband, Sofyan, and I wholeheartedly supported these projects as best we could.

I am in awe of the work that so many brothers and sisters in Subud all over the world have accomplished through following their inner guidance and their outer passion for good. As a board member of Susila Dharma USA, I pray to have that same inner guidance and passion to support those who through their projects have the wish and the will to accomplish good and noble work in this world.
Rifka Several                  Office Manager

Rifka Several

 Rifka Several served for many years as a Susila Dharma director and board secretary, and now is their office manager. Rifka is a community college foundation and endowment administrator at Las Positas College in Livermore, CA.

National Helper Liaisons
David Nicoletti             National HelperDavid Nicoletti David is a retired high school teacher, he spend close to 30 years teaching social studies at several of the local Flagstaff high schools. He was born in the San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area. David was opened into Subud the day before his wedding to Sofia in August of 1987. They have a daughter, Brigitte. She just graduated from Berkeley Law. He is the only local helper for the small men’s group here in Flagstaff.
Loretta Covert         National Helper Loretta was opened in San Diego, California in 1988. Over the years, she has served on many committee and helper dewans and is honored to serve as National Helper liaison to SDUSA.
Loretta is retired from 35 years as a practioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and currently resides in Crestone, CO, where she raised a family with her late husband Lionnell. She has lived in Crestone for 22 years.
She enjoys playing guitar and is an avid gardener. Loretta is a working member of the Atalanta Cooperative Garden that serves the local community by providing the opportunity to participate in a permaculture garden and supply fresh food for the local food bank. She also serves on the board of directors of the Atalanta Association.