Human beings,

The skill or art of communication is a two edged sword, similar is the skill or art of empathetic listening, both important elements for the SALT agent. However If your life is not grounded or rather built on the foundation of universal principles that stimulates and facilitates a win/win solution to our many societal challenges, such as HIV/AIDS all you would be as an agent in the response is just another mercenary, looking out for yourself and manipulating, and…

Something has not been connecting. Honestly. After years of pumping funds into projects and organisations we are still being faced with an epidemic that's threatening the workforce and future of our nation. Truthfully, people know. At least, they say they do. However, they are not adopting positive behaviors.

As a society, as a community we are concerned. Genuinely so, we wrestle with ourselves trying to find the solutions that create positive behaviour change. We…

I have been thinking.....sometimes we hold on to the past which directly affects if we actualize our goals or fail.Too many times we are forced to listen to those that sit and complain about the past experiences using it as reason why something is not going to work in the future. To those of you who do that, I say wake up and smell the coffee. Yes I believe that we need to learn  from our past experiences, that we can transfer skills and lessons learnt  to create new and better…

Colleagues, participants, human beings to appropriately understand, there must be dialogue; for change to be sustainable, significant, and quantum there must be a change in mind-set…the old way of doing thing begs for change…how timely this salt visit.

In the Arab countries, an agreement was sealed with a gift of salt to show the strength and permanence of the contract: In the book of Matthew, 5:13 (a book in the Bible) believers are called “the salt of the earth”. Let the salt…

Here is another moving sharing by a volunteer at the convention organized recently by Samraksha. The spontaneity of his actions, the immediate recognition of basic human rights and his conerned response is heartwarming. Read more about his actions, and watch the video of his sharing here !!!

http://samrakshainspirations.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/a-gesture-from-the-heart/

(This blog must be updated with all your corrections, as the vagaries of time are fast eroding its veracity. Please comment, and suggest your corrections to which we look forward and thank you in advance.)

Neither Doncil’s birthday party which ended at the early morning hour of 3:30 AM, nor the steady drizzle could dampen…

Hi all from Kazan!

A want to share our experience in SALT method. Recently we've learned it and we practeсed it. Our practice was in a family where parents desided adopting four children with HIV from their birth. And one of these children has also cerebral palsy.  We interviewed the parents with interest asking them about their strengths and what they are proud for in their life and what things made them so strong in their desire to take children in their family. We are very grateful…

(This blog will be updated with all corrections suggested. Please comment, and suggest your corrections to which we look forward and thank you in advance.)

The end of the event is the beginning of Ning and Learning Blended. For, once hooked to ACP and CLCP, one is hooked for Life. This was the message Autry and Michael had clearly spelt out during their presentations on Ning and Blended Learning.  

Testimonials galore:

Proceeding into the Plenary…

Ironically enough, the Trinidad Experience did not begin in Trinidad, but in Guyana. A  T&T delegation comprising of government officials and representatives from civil society got themselves "salted" at the Clara Lodge Hotel in Guyana. We did not only see the application of the process in our own lives, but we saw the real life applications of it when we conducted two SALT visits, one with Prison Officers and the other with the MSM community. Personally, the visit to the Prison…

Dear Friends,

Our new friends from Trinidad and Tobago are in the process of developing their National AIDS Coordinating Program (NACP) and are doing it through the Competence Process. Consequently, please help them to tinker with the Self Assessment framework. Looking forwards to everyone from the T&T ACP Event to land on this page and give their inputs online after the workshop, so that we can all together continue on the journey towards Competence. A couple of days ago…

Samraksha recently organized an inspiration sharing event for community volunteers to share their experiences. 

This is a powerful sharing by a woman leader Parvatamma on how she helped fight stigma in the community through her personal action and ensured adequate livelihood for women affected by HIV in her community.

You can see the post at …

Digesting all my learning from a week in Samara, a beautiful Russian city at the Wolga, it appears to me, now clearer then ever, that SALT is a natural process. It reminds us to be ‘normal’, to be the human beings we are in all our interactions.

Natasya, in her wheelchair during our last (in a series of 6) SALT visits that week says it beautifully:

“These meetings with your team once again proved that it is not important how we look, what language we speak, what confession we are…

The beginnings:

It was one of the most quickly organized visits. In a week, we had decided the itinerary for travel, got a visa, and I was on my way to Trinidad and Tobago. For from 4 to 7 July 2011, the Constellation will introduce the AIDS Competence Process (ACP) to organisations and communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Michael Mc Garrell, Autry Haynes, and me were the three facilitators for this event.

We had a preparatory meeting on the 3 July 2011, going…

Il est 19h00 le 20 juin. Rui nous  ramène de Boëne à Maputo, après la première journée du festival du savoir au Mozambique. Après un trajet de 30 km, nous nous arrêtons à un feu rouge au sommet d'une colline. Les membres de l'équipe devisent  à l'arrière de la voiture. Rui profite de l'arrêt pour répondre à ses sms. Il organise avec son équipe  des visites SALT pour 100 participants pour demain,  ce n’est pas une mince affaire !

Pendant qu’il écrit, nous sentons un choc à l'arrière…

It is 07:00 PM on June 20. Rui is driving us back from Boene to Maputo, after the first day of the Mozambique knowledge fair. After a 30 km ride, we stop at a red traffic light at the top of a hill. Team members chat in the back of the car. Rui takes advantage of the stop to respond to few text messages. He and his team are organizing SALT visits for 100 participants for tomorrow, not a small endeavor!

As he is writing, we feel a shock at the rear of our vehicle. Rui stops writing,…

We have finally arrived in Trinidad. After all the planning by the Constellation and UNAIDS Trinidad, we are here ready to transfer the AIDS competence process to of Trinidadian friends. Sometimes we fail to acknowledge and appreciate those that work behind the scenes; those that put together the bits and pieces. So I just want to say thank you to all those that worked so hard behind the scenes in putting this Trinidad experience together.

After a really good breakfast this…