We often think of freedom as having choices. But I wonder… are we truly free when so many of those choices are shaped by the expectations of others? When we spend our lives striving, yet never arriving?
For the Ibus, there was never even the illusion of choice. Life was decided before they could dream. The work they did. The price they were paid. Even how the soil beneath their feet was used. All chosen by someone else. Kept small by a system that never saw them.
They are farmers whose hands hold the memory of the land. Craftswomen who can weave prayers into cloth. Women who have taught me what it means to live with purpose, and who have shown me that another path is possible — one where the way we make and consume can heal, not harm.
As an economist, I was taught that the opposite of poverty is wealth. But here, in our villages, I learned the truth. The opposite of poverty is dignity.
And dignity begins with freedom. The freedom to shape your own future, to stand tall in who you are, to choose the life you want for yourself and your children.
When women don’t have a voice, all we have is our dream. And that was what SukkhaCitta was in the beginning... A fragile hope that the world could be different.
Until you.
Because of you, a mother can feel visible and valuable again. Her daughter can grow up seeing her heritage not as a burden, but as a source of pride and possibility. Their wisdom, heard and celebrated around the world.
And now, these women, once invisible, are rising as protectors of the land. Of Ibu Pertiwi. The soil and the seed. The memory and the future. A quiet force that has held us all this time, even when we forgot to notice.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear her. In the hum after the rain. In the rustle of leaves. In the stillness before a harvest.
Soon, I’ll share more about her and the movement she has inspired. But for now, remember this: when she thrives, so do we. When she is free, we are free.
What began as a heartbreak has grown into something far greater. A movement for freedom, for dignity, and for life itself. And every choice you have made to care, to question, to act, has been part of this change.
You see, everything we know to be true — every system, every possibility — began as a story once told by someone else. And if there’s one thing I learnt from this work, stories can be rewritten.
As we step into #9YearsOfChangingLives, I hope you’ll help write the next one. A story of a world we believe in. One where we leave more beauty, more dignity, and more freedom than when we found it.
Because the future is not something we wait for. It is something we choose. Together.
Will you join us?
Your Nerd,
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