Today was my first day of being so very warmly welcomed by Community Life Competence - a group of unique individuals having shared vision - 'the art of seeing the invisible visible'.  These words define vision and echo in my mind - presented as a plaque to my father during one of the Diabetes Conferences.  A man of principles and wisdom, who I value even more as time passes...he passed away just before the first lockdown started here in the UK.

As I was familiarising myself…

We met on Zoom during the Global learning Festival on 1st Oct'21 and watched the video of Thai community response to COVID-19- Loli, Rafique, Swathi, Usman, Widad,and Rituu. 

Experience_EN from As You Open Your Eyes on…

Hi all, we have a really interesting new episode on Arukah Network's 'How To Build Community' podcast...

How can you help your community, organisation or team get better at problem-solving? In this episode, join 'Psychological Safety' expert ERIN LLOYD ROTICH from the USA, Tearfund's PRANAYA CHHETRI from Nepal, and FWANGMUN OSCAR DANLADI from the pioneering Jos Green Centre in Nigeria, as they help us search for answers...…

“I am not SALTY at home.”

I realized, that although I have applied SALT in my work, I never gave a chance to share it with my family. There was that clear separation between home and family life. And although it works for some, it oftentimes gives me stress when these two worlds do not overlap. Just the mere switching on/off to work or family mode had become exhausting. I also realized that the dream I developed many years ago is only about work and only involves one aspect…

When I was invited by Marlou de Rouw over a year and a half ago to join the facilitation team for a blended SALT-CLCP course with the ASEAN Institute for Health Development (AIHD) in Thailand, I gladly accepted the invitation and looked forward to co-facilitating the course which would combine face-to-face learning events with…

(en français ci-dessous)

Dear Friends of The Constellation,

We are pleased to share with you The Constellation 2020 Report: https://the-constellation.org/the-constellation-report-2020-english/…

A new episode of Arukah's 'How To Build Community' show is out!

SHAYDANY URBANI helps people to identify and challenge fake news, as part of her work with the organisation 'First Draft'. Here she shares her top tips and advice, alongside case studies of people successfully fighting fake news around the world.…

During my working years with a bank where I spent 29 years as a career, I had the good fortune of working directly with Mr KXM John who was my boss, when I worked in a branch office for a few years.

Mr John was a small-built, unassuming man, of cheerful countenance and pragmatic approach. He had impeccable command over the English Language. He was…

• Sharing of Gerlita Maquirang Condino, A Veteran CLCP and SALT Practitioner

It has been a long while since I did any activity with the Pinoy Competence, much more with anybody from the Constellation. That email inviting a facilitator from Asia came in as a surprise as well as invigorating as drops of rain in a parched field on a summer day!

One email, two preparatory meetings, and now we are into the second day of the third team in this 3 Day…

As we focus on SALT and gain insights in ourselves and those with whom we work, we also bring to it a variety of experiences and knowledge that we have accumulated. These additions need to be pondered over specially to see whether there is harmony between SALT and additional learnings, or some contradictions take place. While inadvertent contradictions present a challenge to all SALT champions, the harmony elements too need to be acknowledged, and not…

I was so happy and proud to be assigned to facilitate virtual SALT Training for our dear Beyond Social Service Singapore.  The training was conducted for 9 days and split into 3 days per week starting from 17 May until  2 June 2021. For me, it means a lot particularly the side effect of furnishing my English.  I have no doubt to work with any SALT facilitators all around the world since we can easily be connected since we believe in humanity and SALT.  But what? I've got a lot of learning,…

In Jan-Feb'21- Ramaiah International Centre for Public Health Innovations (RICPHI) evaluation for our project was out and Constellation team was planning a webinar on the project. The HealthRise Transition grant funded by Medtronic Foundation and implemented jointly by MAMTA- Health Institute for Mother and Child, Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), in which the Constellation, worked toward reducing premature mortality associated with NCDs through SALT and Community…

I am very upset that I am writing this as I have suffered a major loss with passing away of Dr Jana, one of my mentors.

When at UNAIDS, I had exchanged emails with him. I left UNAIDS. First of my assignments happen to be the IDRC project on documentation and advocacy by sex workers with Dr Veronica Magar. This 2 year project was with DMSC and WNU when I  got to collaborate with DMSC team of Paramita, Santanu, Mitra di, Samaita and others. I went on to…

Coming from a country where English language is not the mother tongue of the vast majority of its population, and where even the national language is not commonly understood in rural areas and small town, and especially by women, introducing SALT has been a challenge.  How to convey the meaning by each letter of SALT? This initial hurdle was soon overcome, and relevant words were found for each SALT letter.  However, the local acronym emerging from the translations was not used, as it…

How is one to introduce herself/himself to a marginalized community, after having been introduced to SALT and advised to take the SALT approach. After initial greetings, and thanking the community members for being there, is the person to say: I am going to use the SALT approach with you…  This will help you understand yourself.

 An informal discussion with a group of community based workers led to a discussion on how they introduced themselves on their…

This is not a long clip: here is the full transcript.

Love, care, comfort and respect.

Once you do that for elderly people,

You live for longer and longer and longer.

From the moment that I heard Cossy say these words on a hot, sunny afternoon outside her house, I knew that she was…

Marlou and I were overwhelmed with joy and enthusiasm when we knew that there were more than 20 friends from three continents joining the first Virtual SALT Visit in the Go Girl project.  We visited Babes, an NGO in Singapore working to take care of pregnant youths. We opened the session by sharing through a chat box who we are and the age of our mom when she delivered us.  As Marlou said, this is an appreciation of our mothers. I found that participant mothers were 19 - 38 years old…

There is a story about a man claiming to have taught his dog simple mathematics. When asked to to demonstrate that his dog has learnt simple math, he readily brought his dog and placed, in front of the dog, some cards with numbers on them. He told the dog to show what is 2+2. The dog went to the cards and after sniffing them picked one with number 5 on it. Somebody said:   Hey! Your dog does not know basic math! The man retorted, I had said, I taught him math, I…

Some years ago, Wiwin, SALT-CLPC facilitator from Bandung, Indonesia brought a SALT visit to Babes in Singapore. Wiwin recalls: “at that time we carried out a living room chat. Teenage mothers, their mothers and their babies came together and we chat just like we are talking in the living room. At that time I was overwhelmed with happiness that we…