BRIEF HISTORY OF PERKUMPULAN DARMA LAKSANA
On 21-25 Februari 2005 in Cikanyere Indonesia there was a meeting of Justice and Peace led by William Harry, O.Carm with Indonesian Carmelites who were working in the field of JPIC. Beside William Harry O.Carm., Sr. Jane Remson O.Carm. and Sr. Helen Ojario O.Carm. from Carmelite NGO also attended the meeting. At that time Carmelite NGO was introduced to Indonesian Carmelites. Interested in this new movement of the Order.
The participants, then held a conference on JPIC in Malang Indonesia on 24-27 Mei 2005. The conference was intended to introduce Carmelite NGO and to invite Carmelites to work more on the field of JPIC. Fr. Antonio Silvio Da Costa, O. Carm. gave his presentation on his JPIC work in Timor Leste and introduced the work of Carmelite NGO. Although the Indonesian Carmelite NGO had not been founded yet, the participants agreed to network on the work of JPIC.
In the meeting of Indonesian Carmelites working for JPIC with Sr. Jane Remson, O.Carm. in Malang (11-12 June 2007), they decided to have an association of Carmelites working for JPIC in Indonesia. The association is expected to be the means of communication among them. It is also expected to establish a directory of Carmelites working for JPIC, to hold regular meetings, trainings, and recollections for the members and for those who are interested to work for JPIC. This association is then called as Indonesian Carmelite NGO. At that time, it was decided that Indonesian Carmelites in cooperation with Carmelite NGO would start a Nias Program (Nias is an island in Indonesia affected by tsunami). The program provides assistance to the victims of tsunami by providing loans (pig raising program) and sending young people to study in Java. It is expected that after their study they will go back to Nias to build their own hometown. For this program, Indonesian Carmelites, supported by Carmelite NGO, bought a house in Malang which would function the house also functions as the office of the Association of Indonesian Carmelites working actively for JPIC.
On 5 February 2008 the prior provincial of Indonesian province led the grand opening ceremony of the Indonesian Carmelite NGO house in Malang. The house functions as the center for Indonesian Carmelite NGO activities and the house for the students of Nias Program.
On 15 October 2012, Indonesian Carmelite NGO is legally registered as a formal institution according Indonesian legal system. Since that time the NGO takes a new name of Perkumpulan Darma Laksana. ‘Perkumpulan’ is an Indonesian word which means association, while ‘Darma Laksana’ is the name. ‘Darma’ is an old Javanese word which means ‘service/vocation’ and ‘Laksana’ is a Javanese word which means ‘justice/goodness’. We do not use any words referring to Catholic or Carmel in the name to make it more general.