« Est-il possible d'imaginer [...] un monde où les individus et les communautés reconnaissent et respectent leur humanité commune et vivent leur…

“Is it possible to imagine [...] a world where individuals and communities recognise and respect their common humanity, and live out their full potential to contribute to society as a whole?”

Many among us as participants in this Constellations virtual platform will surely feel we are contributing to creating that world. We do so in our own way, with our own means, in our own context.…

   I am working as a storyteller in a very diverse and difficult public school in Manhattan.  Inspired by the SALT method, that I am learning,  I asked  22 young people in a third grade class to describe their strengths. "I am kind."  "I love to read"  "I can run really fast" and so on.   They  were learning to be storytellers  to present folktales that inspired leadership and advocated against bullying.  During our session I noticed a boy who kept to himself and was avoided by the…

On February 17-19, Belcompetence ventured out onto yet another road to spreading the “taste” of SALT and CLCP in Belgium:  We…

Hans Rosling was a Swedish physician, academic, statistician, and public speaker. He was the Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute] and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation. He held presentations around the world, including several TED Talks in which he promoted the use of data to explore development issues. He died on 7 February 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosling

He…

Reflections on our shared dream, "What makes us human?"

Chapter 3: Before I was a radio: now I am a recorder

My title is not metaphorical. Jean-Louis describes a visit to a group of sex workers in Matadi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Everyone there was expecting another lesson from experts and the seating had been arranged accordingly. Under the shade of a mango tree, a high table was covered with a beautiful sheet and was enhanced with a bouquet of flowers. The chairs…

Here is The Constellation 2016 report!

The theme of the report is: “Community to Community Transfer of Local Response”.

“If communities own the…

Celebrating the Local Response as an Important Resource for the Community

– a SALT approach for the transfer of local response

Beyond Social Services, Singapore

December 2016

Our Reflection

Everything has a life span. All groups and their endeavours who wish to remain relevant would do well to picture themselves within a life cycle from inception to closing. Stages in between would be development, maturity and redefining relevance.  We…

Gender fight, seeing the future and development: The story of Mazah in Nigeria.

[This story emerged during group work in the Community Development Journal Conference in July 2015 at Edinburgh. The session was flagged off by Jacqueline Shaw and Graham Jeffery’s presentation titled -Between Potential and Reality: negotiating participatory cultural processes towards community emergence

Group members: Oga Steve Abah, Walter Arteaga 
Jo Howard, Erika Lopez Franco and Rituu B…

The religious orphanage, Saint Enfant Jesus (OSEJ) is located two steps from the local market of Abomey, a town in the Zou region of Benin. At the OSEJ there are 6 care workers, who are called by everyone "les mamans", the mamas.  Maman Pierret, Nicole, Gérard, Vital, Nicole and Colette, have been working at the OSEJ for more than 10 years. Along these years they have took care of…

On the Valentine’s day Loli & I had the opportunity to present the SALT/CLCP approach to 20 students in Professional License for International Solidarity, at the University Montaigne, Bordeaux – France. We had one full day to present and discuus the various components of the approach and to carry out a SALT visit to a Sciences Po students’ association (Deka Ewe) active in Togo. The students were very much interested on the practical aspects of the approach and they reacted…

https://what-makes-us-human.com/blog/our-blog/

We reflect on origins, synergy, and shared growth.

Video by Anu Sieberk

This video clip comes from part of a presentation that Jean-Louis gave in Ferney-Voltaire for the launch of the book about the story of our shared dream, 'What makes us human?'

Here is a slightly edited transcript of the video: 

"I want to talk about the essence of what we are trying to do. For this we use the acronym SALT;…

A reflection on Chapter 2 of "What makes us human?"

“How much will you pay us?”

r“You may ask how we find all these wonderful people who are now part of the Constellation. Here is the secret. All of us in the Constellation are ordinary people, but because we refuse to consider money as the main engine that drives us, we have learned to discover our wonderful strengths and nurture them as we learn and grow. We dream of a system in which all of us have the opportunity to use…

L’équipe SALT de Sankuru s’est rendue à Tshudi Loto du 16 au 21 janvier 2017. Blog publié au nom de Paul Lokoto.

L’équipe SALT et ses partenaires ont décidé d’enregistrer quelques histoires en vidéo pour confirmer les changements dans les communautés de la zone de santé de TSHUDI LOTO.

1. Dans la communauté d’OTEMA ALANGA, Maman ISABELLE explique : « Mon mari est un grand chasseur. Dans notre famille, nous ne savions pas que lorsque nous ramassons un animal trouvé mort…

Back to Molenbeek . . .

. . . This time on a smaller, but certainly not less important scale!

During one of the follow-up meetings on the Molenbeek initiative, there was a new face in the circle:  Karim Azemian, a co-founder of ASBL Repère, an organization that seeks…

Chapter 1: AIDS Competence should spread faster than the virus. 

In 1997-1998, Jean-Louis spent 18 months in Phayao, a province in northern Thailand. In a few short sentences, here is what he learned.

“It is necessary to provide services to prevent AIDS, to care for it, and to reduce its impact, but these services are not sufficient. The key resides in the actions of individuals, of families, and of communities in responding to the scourge. AIDS Competence means communities…