Subud members from around the world competed for a share of a $100,000 award pot offered by SESI at the World Congress. There were forty-eight presentations about Subud-led enterprises and projects, made over a three day period. Each participant made a challenging “Shark Tank” style three-minute presentation before an audience and a panel of three judges. The judges then selected 20 finalists.
One of the 20 finalists was given a private grant and, to their surprise, the remaining19 finalists had to give their presentations again. Osanna Vaughn, who organized the event, was clear that their committee wanted the Subud community to witness what members inspired by the Latihan were doing all over the world. And it was inspiring — the projects were as unique as we are as members.
The expectation was that the second presentation would again winnow us down to even fewer in number. But two days later, when it came time to name the final finalists, Osanna announced that all 19 would receive grants! What a gift! What a recognition for all these very fine projects.
We are delighted that two projects presented by members from Subud California were among those receiving awards:
Emmanuel Williams (Subud CA at San Joaquin Valley), being unable to make the trip to Germany, made his very effective pitch via a video recording. He asked for funding to produce and distribute via social media 20 short video stories to help teenage girls cope with a range of life challenges, from bullying to overuse of screen time. This creative project received an award of $2500.
Henrietta Haines (Subud CA at Walnut Creek) requested funding to enable the Venezuela Food Connection to expand beyond sending food shipments to Caracas to also deliver seeds and Spanish language educational material and “how to” books for urban gardening.
The Venezuela Food Connection received $3000. Thank you to the SESI donor and to the Judges who worked so hard for more than a week to make this possible. And, thank you to all the other donors who have made it possible to send food to Venezuela for more than a year. In the photo below, Henrietta (far right) enjoys a celebratory a moment with Subud members involved with food relief activities from India, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. Next to Henrietta are the President of Subud Venezuela, her mother (behind her), and Sandra Diez.
A complete list of SESI winners and awards is available here.