“Hey, we want to be part of this. We are here. What can we do?”

The newly trained SALTy facilitators who carried out a first round of living room conversations in February were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome and smiles with which people in ‘de Fier’ opened their doors for them.

The Fier is one of the newly built apartment buildings in Zeeburgereiland,…

How to start a conversation on migration?

We started a 7-day course on strengths-based facilitation of refugee groups in the Netherlands by letting participants (some of them with migration/flight history, and some Dutch) ask each other the following questions:

- Where were you born? Where were your parents born?

- How did that shape you as a…

In Utrecht, in the center of the Netherlands, we came together to learn about SALT as a strengths-based approach to assist refugees in making a new home, building new networks etc. More importantly, we came together to learn from each other about diverse perspectives on inclusion of refugees in Dutch society.

Only 6 out of the 20+ participants are born in the Netherlands in a Dutch family. The rest of the group consisted of (former) refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Iraq, Kosovo, Burkina…

Blue Ribbon Feedback

Here is a little story of how a very simple accountability and feedback mechanism turned out to deliver a much bigger change. Listening and trust building are far more important than any tool.…

Aghamathika sa Kalye (Science Mathgic on the Street)

PHILIPPINES ‒ The magic of science to the aid of children of Manila – by Marie Lamboray, The Constellation, Belgium   

Last November 2017, Joy Pavico (PinoyCompetnece) and Jean-Louis Lamboray visited a group of underserved kids at the invitation of a peer educator. To open their minds…

“Isn't there a shortcut? ” asks Ranga as with Marlou we visit the beautiful Moluccan Islands in East-Indonesia.

While more and more people in rich countries tend to connect with nature, with people and with self,  in poorer countries people lose those connections as they imagine  more…

Learning from applying SALT in Catalonia. (it follows the previous post on Who are we?)

(AER) some interesting challenges to reflect upon:

• One important aspect was to clarify the role of the Government administration. Clearly reflecting clearly on power dynamics is important in the beginning of a participatory process, specially as an ethical issue with participants:
• Clarification on what are the overall intentions of key actors like government in this case, or…

Dear all,

I would like to share my experience in applying SALT to a project with Civil Society Organisations in Tarragona, Catalonia.

A gathering was organized on 20^th January, which was facilitated using SALT to get to know better "Who are we". Some organisations / reference persons know each other, and also have a history of working together, but not all, so diversity was there, which was hugely needed to be taken into account in the facilitation…

Suddenly I was filled with happiness and with warm feeling. Jean Louis visited us, Indocompetence members, in Bandung last two week ago. We reconnected one and another. There was Dewi, Eki and me myself. Prior to the visit, Dewi and JL have had salt visit to Maluku Competence that has shared me with so much energy of Om Eli who has been safe guarding the ‘ budaya’ to keep environment treated sustainably to meet local people need. What I have learned from JL’s story of our colleague in Maluku…

This post is a very quick response to a recent discussion on PELICAN about establishing feedback mechanisms for people who cannot read and write. Accessibility is indeed a fundamental requirement of an effective feedback and complaint mechanism and it is great that we are discussing and investigating this together. 

Accountability to the affected population has been an area of strategic focus for many organisations in the INGO sector in the last decade. The recent collaborative…

Moi aussi, j'étais un enfant de la rue. Après avoir découvert SALT, grâce à Eric uwintawaza, et identifié mes forces, j'ai décidé de les utiliser pour rencontrer d'autres enfants de la rue. Je leur ai parlé, je les ai écoutés et, petit à petit, j'ai commencé à me faire des amis. Il n'a été pas facile de les approcher, car ils avaient des demandes auxquelles, personnellement, je ne pouvais répondre. Mais je me suis dit: Et si je leur racontre ma vie dans la rue et comment je m'en…

“Autry as I listen to your experience, I am reminded of the story of the candle and the dark room. One candle when lit, offers a glimpse of what is in the room while in darkness. However, if more than one candle at a time, is lit, the total strength of the once dark room is eventually revealed.” Tricia, a colleague with whom I shared the rewarding experience in the ‘City of Stars’ [Chiang Dao] and ‘City of City’ [Chiang mai], especially about the local…

This story is after a discussion with my team mate from Ruchira Neog , Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA). I have also had discussion on this with my Bongaigaon and Udalguri teams.

Often I am asked why we have not focused on 'mothers' in our immunization project in Assam. Why have we engaged the family and the whole village. With 11 months of work, I reflect on this aspect of mothers vs family approach.

We invite every segment…

hello everyone I am pratibha and I am sharing with you my experience on salt. rittu ji asked me a question about salt that how can we continue the salt if we are not getting funds. than I answered that salt is not an activity it is a part of our life. so we don't need any other support to continue this.

Thanks!! 

As I am rereading the summary of our initiation weekend, I realize that there were two learning items that I had not included in the initial report.

The first reflection was around the envelopes.  While the core of our work consists of identifying our strengths and those of others, I believe we need to be mindful not to create an artificial and contrived exercise around the envelopes.  In other words, the observations should be stimulated but not forced.  Otherwise the danger is to…

Depuis le début de 2017, les facilitateurs du Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES) et de la Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA) soutiennent l'approche SALT/CLCP dans 120 villages de 3 districts de l'Assam : Kamrup Rural, Bongaigaon et Udalguri. La Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) effectuera de mars 2018 à janvier 2019 une évaluation contrôlée randomisée.

En dépit des difficultés, les facilitateurs font un travail formidable : « Tout va bien et…

Since the beginning of 2017, facilitators from the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES) and the Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA) support the SALT/CLCP approach in 120 villages in 3 districts of Assam: Kamrup Rural, Bongaigaon, and Udalguri. The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) will be evaluating the intervention using a randomized controlled trial from March 2018 to January 2019.

Despite challenges, facilitators are doing tremendous work:…

A drizzly February Friday afternoon, but soon the halls of our new training venue (Institute of Neurocognitivism) is filled with warmth and laughter around the cocktail tables filled with edibles and drinks.  Our 12 participants have all arrived and are getting to know each other.

But of course, that is only the timid beginning…

Marlou and I gathered with a diverse group of volunteers and employees of a housing corporation to kick off our project "Common Ground" in a new neighborhood in Amsterdam.



In one street of this neighborbood, one out of three households came to the Netherlands recently as refugees. They obtained a temporary residence permit and the local government provided housing to them. They come from Nigeria, Libia, China, Eritrea,…

Korohouon Two major actions were completed in the feasible action plan of the Korohouon community:

1. A piece of land already acquired with a few piles of sand and gravel for the construction of a health post. The acquisition of the land, according to the sector head, was a consensual decision of all the communities during an assembly.

The sector head tells the reasons for this dream: "When we have cases of illness or a…