Goodbye Sraddhapuspa (Susy)
We are very sad to announce that Sraddhapuspa (Susy Powlesland), GCP’s long standing trustee and Chair, died on 13th May 2020, aged 90. We will miss her greatly. You can read an obituary about her amazing life and work in the local community here.
Below, some of the GCP team share their reflections on Sraddhapuspa:
Tessa Horvath, GCP Coordinator
“I first met Sraddhapuspa at a GCP committee meeting a few years ago. I was so delighted to learn about GCP and to meet Sraddhapuspa who I found very inspirational. It was evident that she was completely committed and oriented to serving the local community. I started the role of Coordinator for the charity about a year ago, and felt blessed to have the opportunity to get to know her better and to develop the charity together.
Our meetings were always lively and productive! She was so astute in knowing what was going on, despite her physical limitations, and a constant driving force for developing both the BIG vision for the charity alongside ensuring we were on top of all the small things too. I enjoyed her sense of humour and how she would laugh if things went wrong. She was a great support to me personally, always checking in about how I was getting on and very keen to support my development. I visited her in hospital a few months ago and it was like visiting an old friend. She was so delighted to hear updates about the charity and I could see how much it meant to her that we were working to support some of the most disadvantaged residents in the borough. For the Buddhists among us, she was a true Bodhisattva to the very end!”
Stuart Cox, Committee Member
“I first met Sraddhapuspa in the first week of my job at St Margaret's House when she chaired the Globe Community Project AGM in one of our spaces. I thought she was amazing. I was just so impressed with her energy, love of the local area and attention to details in chairing the meeting. I also noticed a very cheeky sense of humour. To me she was a bit of a power house and someone who although I have only known very briefly I have come to admire and respect greatly. To me she stood for strength. My memories of her are always around her taking action for the benefit of others in such a dynamic way, however always with that cheeky glint in the eye! She will be greatly missed.”
Srivati Skelton, ex-Trustee and Chair of GCP
“Sraddhapuspa and I lived our friendship in committee meetings! We probably first met at a meeting about the possibility of setting up a nursery run by local Buddhists. The key team for that included a mutual friend, Mallika, who would later become the GCP Chair and also Susy’s (as she was then) preceptor, the woman who ordained her into the Triratna Buddhist Order. The three of us were also part of a group connected with the LBC who wanted to create a charitable project that could offer skills and confidence building projects and services for the wider local community. This became the Globe Community Project which started in 2002.
Sraddhapuspa was a small but powerful dynamo providing an additional boost of power to all our endeavours, from the beginning right up until not that long ago. She had skills and experience in setting up charities and guiding community based projects, but she also had a big vision and a great attention to detail. As we all know, her sensory and physical limitations were no obstacle to her participation in meetings, managing the Advice Service or very successful fundraising. She also had a great memory which was very helpful to me when I became GCP’s chair for a while as she ensured our continuity of purpose beautifully. She was our hospitable host for our meetings in her flat and a force to be reckoned with when the going was tough!
I loved her friendly, caring, determined presence and I miss her.”
Goodbye Sraddhapuspa from all at GCP. We look forward to continuing your legacy and serving local disadvantaged residents in Tower Hamlets. You will be greatly missed.