We went for a SALT visit today to Village Hiragata and digging deeper brought surprising changes to the fore after nearly three years of the project.

Community shared that we cleaned up the playground of the school, planted trees in the ground, installed a water tap and ceiling fans in the classroom. Now the school is clean and beautiful. So what is the result of this, asked Laura Simms. When Children come to school, they enjoy playing in the playground, clean drinking water is…

Old, young, women , men , patients & children developed a common dream for health in village Majhiwar, Block Mashobra, district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India.  Facilitated by Arun and Virender, SALT facilitators from NGO Mamta on 28th Dec 2019. I will highlight three points here:

1. Community/neighbourhood & family centric response to health

HealthRise is a project on Non communicable diseases (NCDs)- diabetes and hypertension. We have…

(On 4th Dec 2019, Dr Michael Steffens visited Village Hiragata, Kamrup Rural, Assam, India for evaluation of CLCP and SALT approach in building community ownership on child health. Anganwadi worker* named Surya Hamida  presented two self-assessments for year 2017 and 2018 done by the community on child health and shared the importance of Self assessment. Project being implemented by Voluntary Health Association of Assam and Constellation with voluntary Health Association of India. Thanks…

Village Sakiapara, Udalguri District, Assam (India). We are using CLCP and SALT process for community engagement on immunization and child health. ANM and ASHA are health workers in India

ANM- Initially there were left outs and drop outs in immunization in this village in year 2017. Through SALT approach, ASHA realized that she could tap the community and rope in the women and if they are involved she could get 100% immunisation. Male participation in immunization has improved. Male…

1. Many of the old villages where they had used SALT in first phase 7-8 monts (2017-2018) most of the patients continued to visit the medical facilities like in village Dhanot and Khatnol mentioned Virender and…

Late in the night I received a message  health worker or ASHA(accredited social health activist) as we call in India. She had facilitated SALT for the first time and enjoyed it and wanted to share the pictures with me. She is Anita from Dharech, Block Theog, Himachal Pradesh, India. We are working with NGO Mamta-HIMC funded by Medtronic Philanthropy on patient centred approach to diabetes and hypertension. 

This what Anita shared:

I think SALT is a very good approach…

I attended a webinar which made me think of the first step of Community life competence process . The webinar -Effective community entry processes: How to build partnerships with communities (and how not to!)

In this Breakthrough ACTION Springboard webinar, Gail Snetro and Carla Sanchez of Save the Children reviewed effective…

WWF Netherlands and the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands organized a three-day workshop on Citizen Science in The Hague in early July 2019. The workshop brought together  representatives from civil society, science and government to learn from interesting cases studies, unpack prominent themes related to citizen science and share experiences.…

I have been informally involved with Society for Community Research and Action. The group recently had an exciting discussion on definition of CP practice and how it can/is/should change! I watched the video later and found it very useful and want to share with you. Thanks to Nicole Freund, Research Scientist, Managing Editor, Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice for this video. 

Key takeaways from the video

Whose knowledge is…

Himani Sharma worked as SALT facilitator in NGO called Mamta, India. In this video, she shares her experience of engaging patients and communities in #HealthRise project supported by Abt Associates in Catholic Health Foundation of India - Udaipur and NGO Mamta- Shimla (India). This project used Constellation's approach CLCP and SALT for…

We often use the term community participation in evaluation but do we reflect enough on the degree and depth of this engagement?“Use of participatory tools alone do not guarantee ‘ownership’. Evaluation can be a largely extractive process of getting data from the communities…did the communities have a say in what data has to be collected?” (LaiaGriñó (2015), DME for peace webinar).In “Theory of ownership” Philip Forth argues, “When I decide what to do and I do…

Background : We started CLCP with adolescents( age group 17-19 years old) who attend computer classes in SAATHI Community centre of Institute of Social Studies Trust, Delhi, India. The aim is how they can be themselves and discover their inner potential. Additionally, how can they value and support each other and work towards a community they want. We met the adolescent girls, then boys and finally on 2nd November 2018, we invited both the groups to meet and share with…

Third meeting:  mixed group of boys and girls (step one of CLCP) 

We started CLCP with adolescents who attend computer classes in SAATHI Community centre of Institute of Social Studies Trust, Delhi in India. The aim is how they can be themselves and discover their inner potential. Additionally, how can they value and support each…

(On 28th Sep 2018,  I facilitated a one-day session on use of SALT and Community life competence process in development and M&E . NILERD -National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (An Autonomous Institute under NITI Aayog, Government of India) organises M&E course for foreign professionals every year in Delhi, India. Here is a short summary of the discussion we had on our ‘common humanity’ and what it means in context of our work with people. This is part II…

On 28th Sep 2018,  I facilitated a one-day session on use of SALT and Community life competence process in development and M&E . NILERD -National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (An Autonomous Institute under NITI Aayog, Government of India) organises M&E course for foreign professionals every year in Delhi, India. Here is a short summary of the discussion we had on our ‘common humanity’ and what it means in context of our work with people. This is part I of…

Recently, we facilitated an introductory session with 11 girls aged 17-19 years who attend after-school English and computer classes at Saathi Centre, Institute of Social Studies Trust in Delhi, India. Ivanka, Kanika and Sneha were my co-facilitators. The project aims to build an enabling environment for the girls in a neighbourhood in Delhi. We are at step one of Community life competence process- Who are we? We began with a SALT meeting…