“I now have fewer expectations from others,” said Ashika from UNICON Nepal, where she works as a community facilitator.

When I asked if ARC (Addressing Root cause initiative) had affected her life in any way, her answer surprised me. Ashika explained that she belongs to a spiritual group where she had heard teachings about self-reliance and expecting less from others. SALT provided her a way to practise the teaching in her own life.She began to see her own strength more clearly. She realised that many things she thought needed others, she could actually do herself. SALT, she said, helped her live what she had previously only understood in theory.

Bishal, a community facilitator from Kopila Nepal, shared something similar. He has had a difficult life and has faced many struggles. Over time he had begun to believe that he could manage many things on his own. Through SALT this belief strengthened that he did not always need to depend on others.

As facilitators listened to one another, they began to see how their own thinking and behaviour are connected to their work with communities. Several facilitators said that through SALT they had begun to see their own strengths more clearly. If this realization could happen within them, they felt it could also happen within communities.

Krishna from Peace for People brought out the connection between expectations from others and self reliance. He felt that when one begins to notice one's strength, one begins to rely less on others.  Simiilarly he further said that unless the organization staff change their own outlook, value themselves and other staff, only then can they help communities recognise their own strength.

These conversations happened during a gathering of SALT facilitators from the Saaramba ARC cohort in Nepal, supported by the Global Fund for Children. Gratitude to the community facilitators of Saarambha cohort who brought a lot of clarity in my thinking as in many places in South Asia there is a strong belief in NGO staff as well as communities themselves that communities have limited capacity to solve their own problems and that solutions must come from outside. Because of this, people often begin to depend on outsiders, especially NGOs.

Photos courtesy Bishal and Krishna