Since about mid last year 2009 Ibu Mas Mayuni, an unassuming retired school teacher from a nearby village of Budakeling, a cousin of the sons and a respected and close confidant of Ibu and her supporter throughout Ibu’s works, was elected as the new Chair of the Ashram. By choice and partly due to her limited English she has been involved with the internal affairs of the Ashram where she has been a real asset and ‘acquisition’ for the Ashram. Her serene, calm and caring disposition along with her compassionate leadership role as a model school principal have equipped her well and her contribution in improving ‘simply’ the Ashram’s  esprit de corps is never to be underestimated. Many comments from guests, old friends and members of the Ashram merely confirmed this.

Meanwhile at about the same time Pak Sadra has been elected to the Karangasem Regency’s Parliament where he has been a shining beacon in keeping the governments, and the parliament itself, accountable in adhering to the proper governance processes. This is something that would have made his reformist and principled mentor, the late Ibu Gedong, very proud indeed as, further more, it also means the definite leveraging in our effort to  introduce Ashram and Gandhian values into the offices of local, regional, provincial and even national government bodies.

However, despite his incredible official work load Pak Sadra is still the Vice Chair and is still very much part of the Ashram. He deals with and represent the Ashram externally, still the practising acupuncturist at the clinic (as the other, Uki Ruktini, is now taking greater responsibility) and, by passion coming from a family of traditional builder, is still involved with the building side that has delivered many new and renovation projects at very competitive prices.

Ibu Mas and Pak Sadra of course can not do things by themselves and are ably assisted by long time members that old friends of the Ashram will be familiar with namely Jata (building & maintenance), Sitep (kitchen), Kawidana (yoga, admin, ‘home’ education of young members), Uki Ruktini (clinic, admin), Komang Karsa (transport & general upkeep), Wenten (housekeeping) and our resident ‘mascot’ Cebur.

These senior members are now ably assisted by the younger school-age members. They mostly come from poor rural families and seem to want to be there and extremely hardworking for the opportunity to study and better their prospects.