As the great pandemic opening unfolds across the country, Subud Portland is emerging from its Covid cocoon with its annual Matching Fund for SD USA ready to go. Without in-person groups of members to appeal to, it wasn’t easy to raise the seed money needed for our Match! Our coffers were empty as the pandemic forced all of us inside and onto screens. We had to come up with a new plan, and the idea of creating a cookbook was born. We reached out to our local Subud members and the cohort of past Menucha gathering attendees to ask them to send us one or two of their favorite recipes. The response was amazing, and we are calling it: Quarantine Cuisine/A Virtual Cookbook.
Take a peek into the pandemic kitchens of our Subud sisters and brothers and see what they especially liked to cook up to help connect with lovely memories and delicious nutritious meals while life was so restricted. All donors to the Subud Portland/SD USA Matching Fund for 2021 will receive a free virtual copy of the Cookbook on line.
Despite the fundraising challenges of the past year described above, Subud Portland has been able to raise $5,000 to fund the Subud Portland/SD USA Matching Fund for 2021. We are proud to announce that we will match any one-time donations made to Susila Dharma USA by August 15 up to our total of $5,000. This is a great opportunity for donors to double their impact in helping support the close to 20 inspiring projects founded by or with the major support of Subud founders from all over the world, with emphasis right here in the United States. We hope that you will respond as generously as possible to this matching opportunity. Your free virtual cookbook will be emailed to you before September.
How to donate:
Please make your check out to Susila Dharma USA) and mail to:
Rifka Several 1196 Holmes Court, Livermore, CA 94550
“Indeed, generosity and charity always go hand-in-hand with the worship of God. Why is that? It is because the fruit that comes from human beings worshiping God is generosity.” (63 WAS 2)
We pray that everyone observing the Ramadan fast receives God’s grace and blessings. For those wishing to give Zakat*, donations this year will be split between Beautiful Portland in the USA and YUM (Yayasan Usaha Mulia) Stunting Prevention Project in Indonesia. These projects provide essential services to individuals and families in dire need. Read updates below.
Beautiful Portland update from Jennifer:
Jennifer Skyler of Beautiful Portland
Beautiful Portland is more active than ever. I am continuing as Executive Director while I have a new helper with all of the daily physical operations. My focus as Director is on fundraising and expansion.
Right now we are distributing around 2,000 lbs of food a week through my helper and our volunteers. Our monthly expenses for the two stipends and operations are currently $2.5 K a month, and will increase once we have a mini warehouse built out, where we will have food storage and food “shopping” capabilities.
The board of Beautiful Portland and I would also like to expand by way of providing more micro grants to Portland grassroots groups that do not have the resources to become non-profits. I am in a unique position to understand the needs of often the most active in helping others on the streets – the grassroots groups, as that was my personal beginning in humanitarian work. Often, the expense or complication of complex paperwork, keeps groups from becoming 501 C 3’s, and so they are doing a lot of “boots on the ground” work with limited support.
I am also working with a former Oregon senator regarding changing legislation on how food “waste” (too close to expiration but not spoiled) is managed by industrial food companies. Industrial food waste creates 1/4 of greenhouse gas emissions. About 80% of the food distributed by Beautiful Portland is technically considered “waste” but is not expired and feeds hundreds weekly.
YUM Stunting Prevention Program:
YUM’s Stunting Prevention Program tracks young children’s weight and height to determine if they are growing according to global health standards.
YUM is working to reach:
24 integrated health centres in 11 villages in West Java & 15 integrated health centres in 7 villages in Central Kalimantan. They are training 120 volunteer health workers in West Java and 30 volunteer health workers in Central Kalimantan. A total of 400 pregnant women will be receiving healthcare support during their pregnancy in both areas.
Health workers check hemoglobin levels of pregnant mothers and provide iron supplements. 42% of Indonesian women are anemic during pregnancy.
*Zakat is a charitable donation traditionally given at the end of Ramadan. Unlike regular donations to SD USA during the rest of the year (disbursed annually as grants to projects), zakat donations are passed on immediately to the projects. As always, if you wish to earmark your zakat donation for a different project, indicate your preference with your payment.
Sequoia Community Center, in the California Sierra foothills, is a collaboration between Amelia Williams and Sulfiati Harris and the local community and government. They have been impressed by the good-hearted generosity of the local community to help others.
April (center) with project directors Amelia Williams and Sulfiati Harris
April is one who has made a huge difference in providing food for those in need. She had a hard childhood and always hoped someone would see what was going on and ask her if she needed help. This offer never happened. Because of this, she decided to be different and help others when she could. So now she goes out of her way to see and help people who are down and out.
As part of the Tulare County Covid-19 response, the Sequoia Community Center was invited to become a distribution site for food from a Food Link partnership. But it was clear that there were people in this impoverished area who were unable to access this food and for various reasons and outreach is complicated. So April came to the rescue. Now, twice a month, April (who has a full schedule as a house cleaner) drives to the community center, loads up her van, and then redistributes food to those she knows can really use it. Living in a remote and substandard habitat, they let her in on the condition that she comes alone. She is one of very few people whom they trust. April is moved by her recipients’ deep gratitude every time she arrives. She is available to help towards further recovery from drug addiction or others issues, but she does not push. For now, April simply meets people where they are and helps them get enough to eat, no strings attached.
Even while so many programs at Sequoia Community Center have had to be suspended, the benefits and caring spirit of the project most definitely continue on.
Many of our SD supported projects are growing and expanding in unexpected ways. Here are two examples. The opening of a roadside café and the gift of a piano have all contributed to our projects meeting the needs of the communities they serve.
Inner City Schools
Thanks to contacts made through Subud gatherings and a piano, the Inner City School Project has expanded to help a high poverty school in New Jersey desperately in need of supplies for students participating in online learning.
Irfan from northern Virginia demonstrates the usefulness of white boards for learning
The story begins with Ophelia Hurst, a Subud Member from Pennsylvania who was moving to Tucson. She wanted to give away her piano and asked another Subud member, Deanna McFadden, for advice. It turns out that Deanna’s daughter Olivia is a principal in a high poverty school in New Jersey. Contact was made and the piano delivered to her school. During the conversation with Olivia, it was discovered that the school was in need of much more than a piano. They needed paper, crayons, markers and white boards and dry erase markers, a must have for elementary students. These supplies were especially important since the school year would begin online. It was going to be hard enough to teach virtually but to not have basic supplies made the task even more difficult.
Without basic supplies the difficult task of teaching remotely becomes nearly impossible
Ophelia left the school feeling she had to do something. She happened to be in touch with Pennsylvania Subud member Kevia Walton not knowing that Kevia’s mother is Hamidatun, founder of the Inner City Schools Project. Kevia contacted her mother to see if she had any money to share since some of the schools she was supporting in LA were on pause due to Covid. Hamidatun had received earmarked funds for her project and after contacting SD USA to make sure she could use the funds for a school in New Jersey she said, “yes, order supplies!”
Currently Kevia is waiting for her orders to arrive so she can personally deliver the supplies to Olivia. Due to so many students in the country needing white boards, dry erase markers and construction paper, everything is on back-order. But as soon as they arrive, Kevia will deliver the supplies.
Yayasan Permakultur Kalimantan
A door that was closed opens due to the Little Café That Could. Read Myriam Ramsey’s report on how the YPK Permaculture project is growing and helping communities in Kalimantan.
The little café that could
When I visited Permakultur Kalimantan Foundation, YPK, last January, Frederika and her husband Jayadi were just completing the construction of a café they expected would provide a small amount of money to supplement their permaculture project. They had no idea of the consequences of this Café.
Up to this point, their project had been conducting workshops on sustainable farming in partnership with the 1,000,000-tree project. The farmers that attended were from villages several hours away. The techniques these farmers learned were successfully implemented in their villages with great benefit to the environment and health of these communities.
But none of the farmers near the project were interested. These farmers continued to use pesticides causing the land to dry up and health problems for the villagers. But Frederika was patient and understood you can’t force people to listen, learn and change. The attitude of her neighbor farmers all began to change with the opening of her café and the effects of Covid on the areas around her farm. The café has become a place to get something nice to drink and sit and relax outside and visit. Suddenly her neighbors are open to learning about sustainable farming. Seeing and tasting the delicious food and beverages she sells that have been grown in ways that build the soil and without pesticides have opened the feelings of her neighbors. The café is so popular the new problem is how to keep up with demand.
Left to right: Ortrud Steiner of SD Germany, Frederika, Myriam, baby Sofati and Jayadi
Frederika was recently interviewed on the podcast, Beaming Green,
Episode Two – Pioneering Permaculture in Borneo, Indonesia.
It’s a wonderful and inspiring story filled with courage and amazing event after amazing event. Please listen.
