Fall Fundraiser update:

Thank you to those who have been moved to contribute to Susila Dharma and the projects we support. This year we have been especially grateful for the funds given in the names of those who passed on recently. It feels like they’re still here helping to make a difference in the world.

• In memory of my parents and grandparents (Jawaharlal Prasad)
• In memory of Harris Clemes (Benedict and Aminah Herrman, and Marilyn Schirk)
• In memory of Stuart Sundet (Hassanah Nelson)
• In memory of Robert Feltman’s 1000th day (Lydia Feltman)

You can donate to our Fall Fundraiser by following this link. Now is the time when we receive most of the funds to support 2022 grant requests. Thank you for your support.

Covid-19 Relief Efforts at Anisha

We also want to thank the Guru Krupa Foundation, our partner in supporting the Anisha Kitchen Garden Project in rural India. We share this update from this project.

As the world has struggled with the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020, India was particularly hard hit in the spring and summer of this year. In a very rapid progression of the disease across India, the government imposed a tight lock-down that forced millions of workers living in India’s large urban areas to return to their villages of origin. When they got there, life was very tenuous with very little chance of earning an income or managing to feed families restricted by the lockdown. Anisha had to abandon its plans to launch Year Five of its successful Kitchen Garden Project (KGP) because of school closures.

With the situation growing rapidly desperate, Anisha and other local leaders banded together to find ways to help stranded families survive. Anisha’s focus went on to food relief and transporting Covid patients to treatment and quarantine centers. An appeal went out to one of Anisha’s major donors – the Guru Krupa Foundation based in New York state – to reallocate funds they had designated for Year Five of the KGP to fund Anisha’s Covid relief work. The Foundation immediately responded by offering its KGP Year Five grant of $10,000 to support this vital local effort. As a result, 520 local families received life-saving dry ration kits, and gasoline expenses to support the free transport of covid patients were covered, as well as PPE for volunteers.

Deepest thanks go out to the Guru Krupa Foundation for its dedicated and significant support for Anisha over the last five years. When their help was most urgently needed this year, their response was immediate and very greatly appreciated. As Susila Dharma does its work in the world, having partners like the GKF makes all the difference!

Update from Michelle Fried, FUEGOS founder:

“Our first group of students graduated in a ‘solemn ceremony’ followed by a fun fiesta with food and dancing. We are so proud of them, as are their parents/significant others. Together we celebrated the formation of ambassadors of real, healthy food that highlights the students´ cultural identity, their newly-developed skills and the products of the land and sea.
Iche, the B Corporation of social responsibility restaurant, is hiring two of our graduates. We trained them and they will have good jobs.”