When you believe People can, They  can!

Two weeks ago, I joined some enthusiastic community volunteers from Flacq on a visit to  Etoile d’Esperance. This is an organization in Mauritius, working to help women with alcohol addiction and other related problems to take treatment and transition to a new life. It offers a residential programme for fifteen women apart from day care and after care.

The visit was special. The residents showed us around in small groups,…

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As I reflect on the last week at the Global Learning Festival at Chennai, images, thoughts and feelings crowd in.

The overwhelming feeling left with me is that it was extraordinary how people felt so full of hope, joy and solidarity. People from across continents, speaking totally different languages could bond together, and feel such a sense of harmony and connectedness. I too felt so connected with myself and with others

What was the magic? What happened in those 5 days that…

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Community Life Competence inspires and passes on the inspiration... a quote from the India Civil Society networking site  from Kshendra Kumar Mishra's posting

 

A dream unfulfilled...

Are sex workers not human beings or do we not consider them as human beings? We talk of gender, we have made reservations, in various services even at panchayat level (village local government) but can we understand the depth of their status? Are these not women or we have…

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An amazing sentence! Connecting not creating, not building, not capacitating!!

 

At the Knowledge Fair organised by the India Care Emphasis team in New Delhi, someone asked." What is new about SALT? As development professionals we have been appreciative and participatory even before. We have been listening to communities." It got me thinking:  what was new ? Was it that earlier we involved communities but the agenda was…

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Last week, I was in Delhi learning from an amazing effort of bringing the CLCP and SALT approach into an extremely difficult environment of cross border migration attempted by the Care Emphasis team inspired by Mohammed Rafique.. The teams were working within the constraints of a highly structured programme with largely quantitative deliverables. They were pushed, challenged by the donors and felt dejected about what they could do. Yet when the community stories began to be shared, they were…

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In the last week of October, something extraordinary happened in Koppal. I have been thinking about it for the past few weeks trying to understand what raised the whole experience to the sublime. Continue

Hello friends!



A deeply fulfillling 2010 to you! Let us hope the cup of inspiration overflows!!! It all started with Jean Louis' words at the Chiang Mai Knowledge Fair." If we believe that others can be the agents of change, they become the agents of change and then we are inspired" Believing communities could be the agents of change, the Samraksha team had been trying to be catalysts for change in the community for many years. We would often say...we are so charged when we are in… Continue