Anisah Center – Rohingya Refugee Education, is a school to uplift the plight of Rohingya refugees from genocide. It is run by Subud member Nadya Holland, daughter of the late Muhtar and his widow, Nuraisjah Holland. Nadya is a Subud member living near a Rohingya refugee community in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia where she serves some sixty refugee families. The primary mission of the Anisah Center is to teach Malay, English and Arabic languages – the most necessary tools for success in Malaysia. Additionally, the Center assists the community with basic needs including transportation to/from classes, clinics, and prenatal checkups, etc.
Students in their new school uniforms
As of 2019, Anisah Center held classes in a leased space which Ms Holland remodeled and equipped with her own hands and the assistance of her students’ parents. Twenty-five students attended daily classes taught by Ms Holland and a volunteer teacher. Government covid policies then prevented classes from being held at school temporarily but as a work-around, Ms Holland set up tutoring services in individual homes and outdoor spaces.
Nadya Holland in white
From December 2021 classes resumed at the Anisah Center with new school uniforms for the students which really made them proud and happy. A new teacher, also a Rohingya refugee, a nice man with a “disability” (what Nadya prefers to call “otherwise enabled”) has begun to teach the refugee students.
Rohingya fathers working on the new school house
In 2022, Anisah Center became a newly funded project of Susila Dharma USA. Anisah Center is also supported by Hasnah Endowment Fund, a charitable project of Subud Winston-Salem, USA, as well as by contributions from individual Subud members. Currently all students receive a full-tuition scholarship.
school house building after the mortar has been spread over the brick
“Anisah” means “friend”. Ms Holland began this project in 2017 with limited funds but great faith that she could make a difference. She wishes to thank the many friends who have supported her befriending these refugees over the years. Already there are more than a hundred children wishing to learn at Anisah Center. In an effort to provide more space to accommodate this interest Rohingya fathers are currently in the process of building more classrooms. It is hoped that with continued and increased funding there will be the ability to meet the demand.
The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions by the Myanmar military of the Muslim Rohingya people. The first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh resulting in the creation of the world’s largest refugee camp, “Cox’s Bazar”, while others escaped to India, Thailand and Malaysia and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. Malaysia has over 150,000 Rohingya refugees.
Cows for Kids is a new project launched in 2022. It is designed as a sustainable, renewable source of funding for the Maulana School For Orphans in Epworth, Zimbabwe. The goal is to manage 50+ free ranging cows at a ranch near the school. Annual birthing of offspring will eventually allow for the sale of cows, providing funds to support the orphanage and sustain the project.
Boran Cattle
Additionally, an educational component of Cows for Kids will be created as an internship at the cattle ranch for select students at the Maulana School for Orphans. This will provide an opportunity to learn the profession of farming and ranching, which is a crucial and thriving business in Zimbabwe with many avenues for further employment.
Cows for Kids is partnering with an existing ranch with infrastructure already in place and land vast enough to accommodate growth beyond their target. A breed of cattle called Boran has been selected as the best investment, as it is bigger, stronger and more disease-resistant than other breeds.
Kids
Cows for Kids is linked to Sahwira Fund, a charity organization created and managed entirely by volunteers. Sahwira Fund has been working with community leaders on-site in Zimbabwe since 2007, slowly and methodically developing a fully-functioning, fully permitted school serving nearly 1000 students. The growth target for the school is to complete 14 school blocks (28 classrooms), with the goal of reaching 1400 students from the adjacent community. Currently the 9th and 10th classrooms on site are being built. The Cows for Kids program is designed to help facilitate this growth target, as well as to provide continued sustainability going forward.
Subud California member Rohana LoSchiavo initiated the Cows for Kids project. Rohana has been closely connected with the Sahwira Fund for many years, she serves on the Sahwira Fund Board of Directors and is head of Sustainable Projects. Click here to learn more about Sahwira Fund.
We are happy to introduce FUEGOS, one of our newest Susila Dharma projects. Its name stands for Fundación para los Emprendimientos Gastronómicos y las Oportunidades Sostenibles in Spanish (English: Foundation for Gastronomical Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Opportunities). FUEGOS aims to bring about positive social, economic and health change via several exciting and innovative projects, all centered around food.
Michelle Fried working with a family to prepare healthy meals
The coastal province of Manabí boasts prodigious biodiversity and a rich culinary tradition, yet 70% of the population lives below the poverty line. “Everyone in Ecuador thinks that food from Manabí is the best in the country,” says Michelle O. Fried, Project Director and co-founder of FUEGOS. Traditional Manabí cuisine, rich in fiber and micro-nutrients, also offers many health benefits. However, local dishes have been displaced by a modern diet high in processed carbohydrates and fats. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer are common, as are obesity and even malnutrition, though many Ecuadorians are unaware of any connection between diet and health.
In 2016, a devastating earthquake struck this already very poor region. Close to 700 people were killed and 100,000 were left homeless. Many still live in tents today. The earthquake exacerbated pre-existing problems such as water shortages, unemployment and crime. Youth and women have been particularly hard hit by the lack of economic opportunities. Despite all these challenges, FUEGOS seeks to harness the potential of food to become a driving force for social transformation.
Restaurant and Food & Hospitality School
FUEGOS is in the process of establishing a Restaurant and Food & Hospitality School in San Vicente, a small fishing town in northern Manabí close to the epicenter of the 2016 earthquake. The school will train impoverished youth (prioritizing women) in cooking, nutrition, entrepreneurship and hospitality, as well as sustainable farming and fishing. The restaurant will serve as an internship opportunity, while strengthening the local population’s cultural identity through the recovery of regional cuisine. The goal: to equip students with knowledge and skills to work in the culinary sector and establish their own businesses — strengthening local economies, empowering the area’s most vulnerable youth, improving nutrition and health, and reigniting appreciation of local foods.
Community-based Family Homestay Program
In order to fulfill the school’s aim of serving impoverished women and youth from the zone of the devastating earthquake, lodging for out-of-town students must be provided. FUEGOS has developed a Family Homestay Program in which local families will be trained to host visitors. Students coming from afar will thus have a place to stay. Once families have become experienced in receiving students in their homes, arrangements will be made for them to also host paying international students and tourists. The Family Homestay Program has the real potential to eventually make FUEGOS a self-sustaining project.
Family Gardens
At the start of 2020, everything was in place for a Spring launch of the Restaurant and Food & Hospitality School and Family Homestay Program. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Plans had to be put on hold, but the FUEGOS team did not wait idly. Instead, they researched, planned, and networked with the local San Vicente community to devise a brand new component to the project: Family Gardens. Families from different areas of town were selected and trained to improve existing home gardens — and family diets — and learn about the connection between food, health, and the environment. Since summer 2020, a core group of families has been building raised beds, planting traditional seedlings, making compost, and more. Their gardens will soon become “demonstrative gardens” that can be used in training others in the community about successful urban gardening. Additional benefits:
• Many Gardens Project families have turned out to be good candidates for the Homestay Program. Relationships between FUEGOS and the local community are growing stronger. • One of the new gardens is located at the Restaurant and Food & Hospitality School. When the school opens (hopefully soon!) the garden is expected to provide enough fresh, local produce to eliminate the need to buy produce from other areas, full of agro-toxins. • Families are feeling empowered and excited by their gardens’ increased yields. They are having fun swapping traditional culinary preparations made from homegrown produce. Michelle shares this story:
Zeus Giler is FUEGOS ́ local agronomist, helping families in San Vicente create gardens that will feed them. Zeus is young, handsome, bright and humble. He is from a poor family but moved out of the hills to study agronomy in a two year course. He loves sharing his knowledge and is an inspiration to the community of San Vicente. He is part of the national agro ecological network where his uncle, an expert in community theatre has been a central figure. Zeus lives about two hours from San Vicente up in the hills. Completely before he even had hopes of any remuneration he decided to come to San Vicente to get to meet in person (all previous contacts had been virtual) the families and other members of the Family Gardens and Kitchens team. As he arrived in San Vicente he texted me saying he had brought a winter squash preparation made by his great grandmother. As a group we had been talking about the nutritional value of foods that perhaps were no longer appreciated in Manabí and the team told me about winter squash, how it had such low prestige that it was mainly given to pigs. Well, after learning that it is very high in antioxidants that up our defenses to ward off Covid-19, Zeus apparently had decided to ask his great grandmother to prepare a traditional recipe, made with squash as well as a variety of white corn which is becoming extinct. She had cooked it over a fire in a traditional oven, two hours away in the mountains, then he brought it to the gathering in the Pacific where some people are still living in tents! He shared the scrumptious dish with the Families team, none of whom had ever heard of or tasted it before. They wrote to me that it was really good… How delicious and fun — this healthy food community.
The Restaurant and Food & Hospitality School, as well as the Family Homestay Program, are poised to start up by mid-2021. In the meantime, ties between FUEGOS and the local community are strengthening, and families are already reaping the benefits of improved harvests and newfound knowledge of local cuisine. From Michelle: “I look forward to helping [the group] appreciate many local vegetables and fruits that have become almost extinct… We can help people have a business that is based on their own culture which will raise their self-esteem… It’s an overwhelming situation that we have taken on. I can only justify it by knowing how extremely good the food is there – and that’s the thing I love!”
Visit FUEGOS’ website here and co-founder Michelle O. Fried’s website here.
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.
