"We are humans first, even before we become involved with religion," politician, lawyer, doctor, whatever ..., says a religious cleric describing the spirit of human support, doing so voluntarily after the massive Oklahoma tornado destruction of people, homes, properties etc. I listen to him on ALjazeera,

As CLCP Facilitators we can positively relate to this. I like it very much. If the world could see this as that cleric does and CLCPs do, "what a wonderful world this will be.."…

The Caribbean Youth Think Tank comprised 14 youths from each of the 14 Caribbean territories. It was established by UNDP to support UNDP's Youth -In project. The vision of YTT was “To be a voice for youth, providing a common space, soaring above the social ills to generate a brighter future for all." During the one week engagement the YTT focused on team building and identifying strengths. Some of the strengths are displayed in the following presentation, enjoy.…

Caribs is one of the nine indigenous tribes in Guyana and live Baramita Village located in the Barima / Waini Region 1 of Guyana. Baramita has approximately 3000 carib indigenous people living in 23 satellite settlements and speak mainly carib language. The Village Council is new having been elected in April 2012 but is committed to confronting the many challenges of governance and development of Baramita. In pursuit of this commitment the Council sought to develop a plan of what it would…

Yesterday I met an enthusiastic Educator who was involved in a Schools Nutrition enhancement project amied at stimulating greater attendance at schools and better performance of students in the hinterland of Guyana. This was her last day of the project after five years. Being SALTy I asked " So what is one memorable moment  of your sojourn, you would like to share?" Smiling she said there are several and began to share very interesting learning experiences, for example in the dark of one…

The Rights of the Child and Indigenous Peoples’ Commissions sought to support the strengthening effort of the New Opportunity Core responsible for the rehabilitation of delinquent young people that came into conflict with the law and were sent to the facility for a period of one to three years. Over the past three years and especially over the past six months there were serious challenges being confronted by staff because of the students’ unbecoming behaviour within the institute.

The…

Summary

Commissions of the Rights Commission agree that there were cross-cutting responsibilities. In this regard the Rights of the Child Commission and the Indigenous People’s Commission have agreed to conduct an outreach for adolescents within the Moruca, region 1 sub-district with the Overall objective:

“To contribute to empowering 40 children of communities understanding human rights and ascertain their vision for themselves into the future, inclusive of…

The Indigenous Peoples' Commission will use aspects of Community Life competence as it implements its strategic plan over the next five years.

The levels of competence will be featured

IPC%2Blaunch%2B%2Bpresentation%2B2012.ppt

This journey began in May 2011 when I return from the learning experience applying CLCP to WASH in Suriname. I was aware of a similar project in Guyana being implemented by Red Cross. Now I understand that it as a collaboration of the French and Guyana Red Cross project but that had ended but that a new phase was about to begin. A casual conversation with Xavier Zimmerman and Suparna Bera-Narine resulted in “We are interested in you making us, our Facilitators SALTy or learn the…

The Indigenous People’s Commission (IPC) is one of four Rights Commissions established under Article 212 G of the Guyana Constitution and tasked, inter alia, with setting up mechanisms to enhance the status of Indigenous Peoples.2012 is the first year of effectively working and one of the major activity is outreaches to Amerindian villages helping them to know and understand why IPC, its functions and how they can benefit from the IPC’s existence. During the visit IPC wanted to also get some…

The RIGHTS Commission comprises three commissions: Women and Gender Equality, Rights of the Child and the Indigenous Peoples’ Commission. At a recent meeting of the executives it was discerned that there was tension among the staff including between senior management and subordinates.

Members of the senior management team agreed to an exercise to stimulate ‘team spirit’ among staff. Exercises of the Community Life Competence Process, was used to achieve the intended goal of…

When SALT is a lifestye practice you seek out opportunity to apply this. Recently during a Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) event, I sought for opportunites to apply SALT, ha! It eventually came. What are the qualities of a good Facilitator? I say SALTy: Stimulate - one's capacity to stimulate local response to ensure ownership and responsibility; Appreciate strengths that already exists and encourage building on these strengths; Learn from the communities strengths, how they…

"I must say, at first when I was being introduced to this Process, I was apprehensive. I see potential and I kept saying yes it will work, but at the back of my mind, I was thinking somethingelse. Now that I have been with you, these past seven days in the communities, I am appalled at what I see happening, THIS PROCESS WORKS! In fact I am happy that I made the effort…

The National Toshaos Council of Amerindian people, representing 9% of Guyana 750,000 population, wanted to take on the responsibility of addressing concerns at the governance level. The Council therefore sought the assistance of UNDP to be trained in the community life competence but also thought that this effort should be extended to the village level and used resources made available to it to do a pilot of the community life competence in four villages. This effort was to help the…

A community that is competent takes ownership and responsibilities based on its strengths. In the process of being competent they build their own dream of an ideal community and develop specific actions to achieve that ideal situation. The specific actions the community develops are based on self- assessing themselves as to where they are now with respect to achieving their dream.…

Communities are “Aware” of many threats to their livelihood. Threats of HIV, gender violence, TIP, you name it. But? Are they aware enough to “React” or “Act”? Using the community life competence approach over the past year has stimulated / generated high enthusiasm. Is this adequate for the desired behavior change? True, community life competence has the potential for changing “Ways of thinking” and “Ways of Working.” The capacity to apply “Learning and transfer” for desired output is…

1.     Activity: Training of trainers in Trafficking in Persons Competence.

2.     Purpose: 

Establishment of TIP Competent committees in Amerindian villages in the Madhia sub-district. 

3.     Procedure: 

The approach sought to build competence and ensuring…