A sharing by Thamizh, Nandhni and Mohana of Sumangali AIDS Thaduppu Sangam, Rasipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

“We provide a lot of services for the community members and for the public through our MSM CBO. We create awareness about HIV, STIs and condom use among our community members. Earlier, if people saw us in public places they would mock at us and ridicule us. They looked at us as untouchables. They would not sit next to us in the…

“This one is to Kazan, a new star in the Constellation”, I hear myself saying. My fingers dip in a small wooden tin. With two fingertips I take a few grains, I put them in my mouth. The SALT is strong, pure and tasty. Then I pass the tin on to my new friend, Svetlana (the small), from Kazan – Russia. She is sitting next to me on a large table with smiling…

22 year old Chawngmawii from Mizoram, North East India left home when she was sixteen. Coming from a broken family with a history of abuse, she started living with her friends or in the streets when she got hooked on to injecting drugs. She got into sex work to support her drug habit and in 2008 was diagnosed as HIV positive.  With the help of some NGOs, she started visiting the existing drop in centres (DICs) to access services.…

I was part of a team that visited a village called Moopanpatti in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, South India. We were there to facilitate a dream-building exercise in the village community as part of a SIAAP CLCP workshop. Once the group was mobilised, largely comprising of women, the team members encouraged them to dream about what they wished for their village as well as themselves. They shared about facilities that they needed such as a primary school, hospital, etc. When we…

Inviting you to share your stories through the SALT STORY INITIATIVE:

Whether we are new to SALT, or we've been facilitating for years, we all have a story to tell about how SALT has inspired us. It is this inspiration which enables us to become a channel for energy, and a catalyst for positive change.

For years, Constellation members have been sharing their stories through NING, providing other facilitators around the world with a window into…

Dear friends, A short update on what’s happening here in PNG. Conditions are still challenging here, but the inspiration is flowing like the Congo river!

The two day Knowledge Fair was incredible. Organised on an island, PNG AIDS Competence invited…

M. L. Prabakar of SIAAP was facilitating the final evaluation of NARI SAKSHAM, a federation of sex worker CBOs in Andhra Pradesh, a month ago when I learnt something very valuable, and striking.

He was facilitating a dream session, and began by sharing his dream of yester year – childhood days, thatched house with holes in the roof built alongside three coconut trees; the incident of fire on the table by spilt kerosene. How today he has come a long way. Even today his mother…

A Day Without Dignity is a counter-campaign to TOMS Shoes A Day Without Shoes “awareness raising campaign” i.e. commercial. Today Saundra Schimmelpfennig at Good Intentions Are Not Enough is asking people from areas that receive shoe drops and other forms of charity, the…

We had a very inspiring visit to Ethiopia last week with IIRR and partners who have been working hard at integrating elements of ACP into their existing Community Managed Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Strategy.  You will see the excellent photos and video clips that Ricardo has been uploading over the past couple of days.

It got me thinking about the word 'integration'.  Seems everyone is using it these days, and as with many things we start saying it and stop thinking deeply about…

Here is another great talk from TED talks warning us not to force people to converse in English.  Conversation in any language leads to a sharing of thoughts and the creation of knowledge.

http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english.html

My country, France, is dealing with many different cultural and social backgrounds, due to the immigration. Today, the government does not know how to take benefit from the diversity that our country presents, and instead of taking advantage of that richness, the government blames on it because thinks that immigration is the main cause for the current problems in the society (unemployment, violence, crime..). For me, it's a wonderful experience we are living, full of strengths in the…

I would like to share an experience we had back then on the 19th of March. We visited an orphanage in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I wouldn't call it a SALT visit, because it wasn't conducted following exactly the values of SALT. (We were too dazed that day) 

Since January 2011 until now, our team has visited 5 shelter homes. They weren't the same people in the team though, every visit we had different members to do the outreach program. Inexperienced, we never expected the…

In February 2011, I visited a Sri Lankan Refugee camp located in Kadayanallur block in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu state along with a team of four Community Outreach counsellors. This camp was established nearly 20 years ago for the Tamil people who migrated from Sri Lanka due to civil war. As part of the Rural Youth Project being implemented by SIAAP, we organised a meeting with young men…

Dream Building Works!!!

It’s been five years now since I was expose to facilitating and I facilitated many workshops and interacted with hundreds of people of all walks of life, sharing experiences, answering questions, giving and getting advises, basically communicating with the participants genuinely, honestly and informatively which contributed to successful and productive workshops. But it was not until September 26^th 2010 that I experience an approach…

The storm that has devastated Japan is hardly past. But as charities appeal and the public offers up their support, I cannot help but think of the three friends in southern Africa,…