Current News and Events

Susila Dharma sponsored programs provide regular updates: innovations such as such as microcredit programs for women, expansion of services into new geographies, or celebrations of successful community building. The programs may need to place special “calls for help” here – for funding or for volunteers – stemming from being unable to meet their needs or experiencing an unfortunate setback. A listing of current events and fundraisers is featured here. You will also find disaster relief efforts initiated by our programs posted here.

 
In Afghanistan, Goats Provide Livelihood for Landmine Survivors and More

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - What they say about sheep in New Zealand may not quite be true for goats in Afghanistan. They don't outnumber people here.
But the importance of the animal to individual families' survival in this arid mountainous country can not be underestimated and the gift of a goat can provide for many in a village.

In Clear Path's first survivor assistance project outside Kabul, 18 beneficiaries in the eastern city of Jalalabad received goats and animal husbandry training from CPI's local Afghan partner, Afghan Disabled & Vulnerable Society (ADVS).
Thirteen of the recipients were landmine accident survivors, two were female heads of disadvantaged households and three were Afghans with other disabilities. The $6,000 project was funded by the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement through a contract with DynCorp to whom Clear Path was a subcontractor until early August. Now, CPI receives direct funding from State for its work in Afghanistan.

The beneficiaries, which included the head of ADVS, Said Husin Sadaqat, himself disabled, all reside in villages of the Qarghaye District, Laghman Province. ADVS employed a local veterinarian to provide technical support to the group in the form of milk production methods. Every six months, a female kid will be received from the existing owners and given to new beneficiaries.
More than 60 families (at least 125 people) will benefit from access to tea, yoghurt and cheese from the animals' milk. The beneficiaries will be able to sell these products in their local markets, strengthening their income from a meaningful economic pursuit.

ADVS was established in 1994 to assist Afghans in need. The director, bound to a wheelchair, has provided vocational skills training and income-generating projects for more than a decade.
SEAM VILLAGE, Battambang Province - Life was a struggle for Ream Luong before he joined the farmer's cooperative set up by Clear Path International and its partner in one of Cambodia's most heavily mined regions. This spring, the partners doubled the co-op to 150 households from 75, expanding an enterprise that's helping many landmine accident survivors succeed as rice farmers.

Ream Luong, Photo by Pat Roe, Clear Path International
Disabled by a landmine accident when he was 23 and now going on 50, the father of three whose wife died of a sudden illness was deep in debt to loan sharks. Every year, he had to borrow to invest in his crop and, because he couldn't store his rice, he had to sell it at harvest time when prices are rock bottom.

The co-op, aimed at providing a socio-economic support structure for landmine-disabled farmers and disadvantaged members of their communities, has turned that around for the below-the-knee amputee from Paum Takeav Village not far from the Thai border.

Thanks to low-interest spring-time micro loans, agricultural training, better crop seed and a chance to store his rice at the partners' rice mill, Ream is now virtually debt-free except for what he owes the project. He and his three children are now among the 750 direct and indirect beneficiaries of the farmers' co-op, which issued $30,000 in $200 loans to the members at an interest rate of 2 percent per month and provides many other services to the households.

Many members of the farmers' cooperative have independently organized their own rice banks. The members each contribute a portion of paddy rice to the bank at the harvest time. One member is elected to chair the rice bank and is responsible for tracking contributions, withdrawals and loan repayments. As the year progresses, if a member needs rice due to an emergency or unforeseen situation, they may borrow from the bank. The loan recipient will then repay the loan in rice with interest, thereby increasing the total amount in reserve.

While CPI does not officially organize or manage these rice banking systems, this sort of community self-reliance is encouraged and discussed in community workshops. Additionally, CPI offers free storage in the warehouse for members who wish to join such a program. Currently, there are 38 members who have established a rice bank, and there is 3,050 kilograms of rice in the bank.

REDMOND, Wash. - As part of its ongoing effort to strengthen local health care in mine-affected countries, Clear Path International has sent its 73rd container of relief goods collected from donors in the Seattle area.

The 40-foot container shipment destined for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, included 234 items ranging from hospital beds and wheelchairs to surgical supplies and diagnostic equipment with a total value of more than $50,000.

The items were donated by Emerald Heights, a retirement community in Redmond; Group Health Cooperative in Seattle; Care Manor, a nursing facility in Gig Harbor; and Martha & Mary's, a retirement home in Poulsbo.

Clear Path has had a program to assist landmine accident survivors in Cambodia since 2002. It is currently operating a rice mill in the heavily mine province of Battambang near the border with Thailand, where it helps hundreds of landmine victims with farm training, microcredit, rice processing and sales.

The medical shipment will be received and distributed throughout Cambodia by the Volunteer Association of Medical Professional in Phnom Penh headed by Dr. Muoy Sroy.

Staff from Emerald Heights help CPI load its 73rd container of medical relief goods.

"Love is what we are here for. Love knows no boundaries, no limitations, no hatred nor fear.."
 Chellie Kew  Ndola, Zambia  October, 2008

Greetings from Chimoza! As the school year draws to a close in mid-December, we look back on a year of great achievements. We will soon graduate our fourth class of seventh graders. New classroom blocks have been completed for grades 5-7, and the 8th and 9th grade blocks should be finished early next year. By then, Chimoza will have both underground electricity and running water. We have added more restroom facilities, and our partner, Seeds of Hope International-who specializes in hygiene, sanitation and community health education-frequently brings international visitors to Chimoza to demonstrate the success of our model.  In July, we completed construction on a new clinic that offers non-emergency services and initial blood tests for malaria. The local governing council of Bwana Mkuba has given us more land, effectively quadrupling the size of our campus. The recent addition of a groundskeeper, gardener and night watchman will enable us to maintain our beautiful campus.
 
On the academic side, we have a new headmaster who previously ran a school in Lusaka and  is well versed in the latest educational regulations and requirements. He has hired new teachers who have top credentials, raising the educational bar at Chimoza to its highest level. School now begins at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. and lunch is provided for all students and faculty. By year's end, Chimoza will become a private school, a move made to protect it from possible future absorption by surrounding government schools. However, the school will remain tuition-free for all students.
 
In July, Dr. Moffatt Zimba of Northrise University told me that "completing what The Q Fund has done in the timeframe it has done it is unheard of in Africa." I want to offer my sincerest thanks to you for your continued prayers and support. Your love and compassion has reached across continents to forever change the lives of these and future students of Chimoza.

A Direct Report from Mithra 

Mithra Completes School Building Enabling New Resources and Events

Mithra School not only gives the academic education but aims at the over-all development of the students. The teachers see not only the children’s ability to study and excel in lessons but their over-all growth, mental, physical, emotional and social. Mithra follows the state syllabus and collaborate with the local government. This year school was reopened on 16th of May. This year we are privileged to have the complete school building which is spacious and convenient for our children and teachers. We have 200 children studying in Mithra School.

The classes in our school are from L.K.G –VIII std. The Subjects taught are English, Kannada, Hindi, Mathematics, Social & Science & also Computer. To assess their performance, every month we conducted monthly test. From June to Feb we conducted 7 monthly tests and two examinations. The dance, karate, Yoga, Music, art and drawings and dramatics were given to them regularly. The students from VI to VIII standard were given Computer classes by Ms.Bagya and Ms.Deepa. The library facility was a boon to our students and teachers. This year we have added more of Kannada books and reference books for our children and teachers. We have also set up the internet facility in the staff room that the teachers can search more information for their subjects.

Special events:
•    Basket Ball court: On 12th Jan we opened the newly built basket ball court It was partly sponsored by Indian Overseas Bank.
•    All our newly admitted children got school bag and a kit containing plastic basket, pencil box, Tiffin box and water bottle. This was sponsored by Indian Overseas Bank last year.
•    Visit of international members: 13 foreign members from 5 countries came to visit our school this year, interacted with our children and our children entertained them with cultural Programs.
•    Teacher’s Day, children’s Day, Independence day, and Christmas day were celebrated.
•    Health camps were organized with the help of volunteers and Koshy Hospitals on July and November 2007.
•    Educational trip in December and Interschool events on Human Rights &  on Yoga in January were well appreciated by the parents.
•    Garden Project: The garden project was continued very well this year also. The external resource team and foreign volunteers put in a lot of effort and the students toiled to reap their harvest of fruits, flowers and vegetables.
•    Sports: This year our children showed great interest in sports, Special
•    Thanks to our teacher Rajeev who worked hard for them. There had
been a wide range of items (13) and a big list of winners (68).

Teachers’ trainings: There had been three teachers trainings lasted for 8 days. They were organized both by the internal team and outside experts. This is in addition to monthly one day in put sessions on Saturdays.

The evaluation of School: It is time to review the effectiveness of the school and set our future steps. A team consisting of both internal and external members accomplished this task this year. We are grateful to all the resource persons who spent their time for us.

Project Quest

Quest Receives Special Recognition

In addition to being partially funded through the Ryan White Care Act, a federal program designed to meet the needs of person with HIV/AIDS, Quest was nominated as a candidate for the 2007 "Public Health Hero.” The nomination lends special recognition for all who participate in Quest: the founders, those who currently help fund Quest, the participants themselves, and certainly relevant for potential donors. The following is from Kate Yen, Community Health Council Manager.

“Congratulations! Quest has been nominated for a Public Health Hero Award! The Multnomah County Health Department is proud that your organization’s hard work, dedication, and commitment to the community have not gone unnoticed. Someone has taken the time to let us know about how you promote health and wellness by providing compassion and outstanding service. Please note that all nominees will be acknowledged at the 7th annual Public Health Heroes Celebration.”

International Child Development Programmes (ICDP)

ICDP Embarks on New Project

New Project in La Tebaida, Colombia
A pilot project has recently started in the College "Luis Arango Cardona" in La Tebaida to adapt the ICDP model to Colombian preschools. The project focuses on training preschool teachers as well as working with parents. The teachers’ daily interactions with students are filmed and afterwards strategies are formulated for improvement. Self evaluations and group evaluations by the teachers themselves are integral to the process. In addition, ICDP will be training teachers to implement the ICDP sensitization program with parents to strengthen parent’s motivation, confidence and abilities as caregivers. The goal of the pilot project is to develop a model that can be replicated on larger scale in cooperation with the Colombian Ministry of Education, which is currently establishing a nationwide program for the education and development of pre-school children.

Asociación Vivir

Dr. Garzón, President of Vivir, Chosen to Lead Nationwide Program, Alimentate Ecuador/Feed Ecuador News

 Badger Camp Update

Tuning In/Badger Camp Grow in New Directions

“As we grow and develop, we change.” This is true for programs as well. The highly successful "Tuning In" program for youth, initiated four years ago by the team of Mahalia LoMele, Sulfiati Harris and Emmanuel Williams and sponsored by Seven Circles Retreat, is moving in new directions. Emmanuel Williams will be presenting Tuning In programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mahalia and Sulfiati, together with Jane Ziegler, developed and are continuing to present classroom art programs at the local Dunlap and Sierra Schools. Seven Circles will continue to support and present programs and camps for children and youth that empower and celebrate individuals and strengthen our community under the name of Badger Camp.

Seven Circles thanks the entire Tuning In team – Mahalia, Emmanuel and Sulfiati, along with many Subud and community volunteers and counselors – for a program that provides much-needed creative experiences for local children. Tuning In served the community in a very positive way, and garners support from local schools, businesses, service organizations such as Rotary Club, and charitable organizations including the Fresno Regional Foundation and Susila Dharma USA. Their donations and grants made the camps available to low-income families. The board of directors of Seven Circles wishes Emmanuel, Mahalia and Sulfiati success and satisfaction as they pursue new directions.

International Child Development Programmes (ICDP)  

New  Projects in Paraguay Achieve Significant Results

Project 1: Development of Children in Their Early Childhood reaches into the countryside to serve low income urban and rural families. An additional grant from the Canadian International Development Agency has helped make this a reality.
 
“This project began in November 2005, when we trained 15 future preschool teachers who had begun to work with 3 - 5 year-old children as part of their obligatory 6 months’ practical training. These students began work as supervised ICDP promoters with four groups of local families: mothers, a few fathers and grandmothers. We were surprised by the interest and commitment of these rural families, and we believe these students will become stable promoters in the future once they have finished their studies in 2008.” The results to date are significant:

-    Number of benefited families is 39 
-    Number of children 0 to 6 is 44 
-    Number of children 7 to 12 years of age is 26
-    Children who attend the kindergarten activities run by students in the role of caregivers is 90 

This program is particularly challenging because many rural and low income people do not read or write in their native tongue and Spanish is a foreign language for them. Additionally there is a typical absence of Paraguayan fathers in rearing their children. Most severely, partial or complete parental abandonment is not uncommon as poor, rural families often leave children in the care of urban relatives or the parents emigrate to other countries in search of jobs.

 “Within this project, we are seeing mothers and fathers exhibiting new affectionate parenting styles, in surroundings where latent violence may typically mark family life. A kind of awakening is now taking place for some parents who until now have been living amidst natural resources without really perceiving them. . since working with this program, they are now asking us to support small enterprise projects such as cultivating food plants.

International Child Development Programmes (ICDP) (continued)

Project 2: Training of Mothers and Fathers for Full Care of Children in Their Early Childhood focuses on urban low-income mothers and fathers in Villeta, a small industrial town with 20,000 inhabitants. ICDP gained additional funding through a contest for small pilot projects promoting Early Childhood global needs, offered to NGOs by the Interamerican Development Bank through the National Ministry of Education.

“This project helps empower mothers and fathers to promote and/or establish a permanent day care facility for their small children, with the help of local authorities. We had our first success: a letter was written to the town mayor and to other authorities and signed recently by 30 parents, applying for support for their day care centre. We usually have 15-20 participants each week. Older children (ages 8-14) feel good because they can freely chose activities and talk openly to the ICDP caregivers. Older children also help the young ones, and all cooperate with tidying up in the end.” Following are some of the results:

-    Number of benefited families is 40 
-    Number of children 0 to 6 years is 35
-    Number of children 7 to 12 years of age is 30 

Project Quest 

Quest Receives Grant from Myers Memorial Trust

Quest Receives Grant from Myers Memorial Trust
In April 2007, Project Quest, in Portland, OR, now known as the Quest Center for Integrative Health, received a $100,000 grant from The Myers Memorial Trust to support its work in providing services, community and education to low-income, at-risk people, assisting them to sustain lifestyle changes that support healing.