Uganda GLF, October 2017.

 As part of the “market place”, Belcompetence has chosen to showcase a few tools different facilitators have been experimenting with and which may be relevant to strengthen our practice of SALT/CLCP. One such tool is called the “mandala of our truths”, and it is part of something called “deep ecology”, and specifically…

Version Française à la suite du texte anglais.

During the month of April 2018, Loli, Luc and Sophie Piquemal were invited to meet various associations of a city in the suburbs of Paris (France), Les Mureaux. That invitation aimed at investigating to what extent the Constellation could collaborate with a local initiative of "Mieux vivre ensemble" (…

Phayao, November 2017. “Let us go and support khun Moon,”says our friend Suwat to khun Saowanee, Anu and I. “He has stopped using chemicals on his land and has to deal with a lot of resistance from his fellow villagers.” Moon and his wife welcome us in front of their modest house. Lots of chicken run around among a luxuriant vegetation. In front of the house a fish pond opens the view toward a mountain range.…

Het is een hele omschakeling van de Syrische stad Damascus, via het levendige Bangkok, naar het dorpje Joure op het Friese platteland in Noord-Nederland. Kinana heeft zich voorgenomen om tijdens deze reis van elke fase in haar leven een leerervaring te maken. Een mogelijkheid om nieuwe dingen te ontdekken en te groeien als mens. Nu dat ze haar eigen gezin met vier prachtige kinderen op de rails heeft, staat voor Kinana vast dat ze wil bijdragen aan het geluk van anderen, “vanuit mijn…

(I had the privilege to talk to Gloria, Acting chief information, Education and Communication and Chanana, information, Education and Communication both from National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), Botswana Government. Here is a note from our conversation. It was held in Entebbe October 2017. Kudos to NACA and Botswana Government have recognised the critical role of communities for an effective response to HIV and have taken a bottoms up, strength-based…

Maggie had a dream for Green and Happy islands in Maluku. She lived that dream.

She took her role in contributing small doable actions towards the dream very serious and that made her a great human being.

To a question what ‘animal’ she would be if she was an animal she responded: “A…

When we start working with the community, we need to go with the mindset that they know better about their situation, environment and issues then me.

We outsiders think that we are educated, we have enough experience, we are perfect and we have the solutions. But the thing is different . Community has their own practical experiences, they have faced the problem and at some extent they have also tried to overcome the problems. They have practical approach rather than…

When did we meet for the first time, I am not sure. Was it in 1998, when we discussed the impact of HIV on Health Reforms? It does not matter, as I feel that we know each other since and for eternity.

Professor John Rwomushana was instrumental in the development and the validation of the concept of local response to HIV.  UNAIDS knew since 1998 that people in Phayao had stopped the spread of HIV because they had taken ownership of the challenge through collective discussion,…

Dear all, 

Together with our team of 8 people, we applied CLCP to ourselves a couple of weeks ago. It was refreshing, insightful and created real enthusiasm and commitment in our team members. 

Here the collection of dreams and the practices. Enjoy! …

Mocambique, Pais Africano situado na zona Austral. confirma hoje uma   estatistica populacional de cerca de 29 milhoes de habitants. A OMS- organizacao mundial da saude, alerta que  na Africa Sub-sahariana, cerca de 15% da populacao de cada pais tem algum tipo de deficiencia . De 2008-2011, esperimentamos um processo unico e genuino de estimular e por as comunidades conectadas. estimulamos o dialogo, a partiicpacao, a partilha da visao, do valor da vida, do sentido…

Background: In 2015, 3ie supported Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Constellation to carry out a rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of the Stimulate, Appreciate, Listen and Transfer (SALT) and community life competence process in 3 districts of Assam, India. 

In every village, there is an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) who is responsible for creating…

“Hey, we want to be part of this. We are here. What can we do?”

The newly trained SALTy facilitators who carried out a first round of living room conversations in February were pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome and smiles with which people in ‘de Fier’ opened their doors for them.

The Fier is one of the newly built apartment buildings in Zeeburgereiland,…

How to start a conversation on migration?

We started a 7-day course on strengths-based facilitation of refugee groups in the Netherlands by letting participants (some of them with migration/flight history, and some Dutch) ask each other the following questions:

- Where were you born? Where were your parents born?

- How did that shape you as a…

In Utrecht, in the center of the Netherlands, we came together to learn about SALT as a strengths-based approach to assist refugees in making a new home, building new networks etc. More importantly, we came together to learn from each other about diverse perspectives on inclusion of refugees in Dutch society.

Only 6 out of the 20+ participants are born in the Netherlands in a Dutch family. The rest of the group consisted of (former) refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Iraq, Kosovo, Burkina…

Blue Ribbon Feedback

Here is a little story of how a very simple accountability and feedback mechanism turned out to deliver a much bigger change. Listening and trust building are far more important than any tool.…

Aghamathika sa Kalye (Science Mathgic on the Street)

PHILIPPINES ‒ The magic of science to the aid of children of Manila – by Marie Lamboray, The Constellation, Belgium   

Last November 2017, Joy Pavico (PinoyCompetnece) and Jean-Louis Lamboray visited a group of underserved kids at the invitation of a peer educator. To open their minds…

“Isn't there a shortcut? ” asks Ranga as with Marlou we visit the beautiful Moluccan Islands in East-Indonesia.

While more and more people in rich countries tend to connect with nature, with people and with self,  in poorer countries people lose those connections as they imagine  more…

Learning from applying SALT in Catalonia. (it follows the previous post on Who are we?)

(AER) some interesting challenges to reflect upon:

• One important aspect was to clarify the role of the Government administration. Clearly reflecting clearly on power dynamics is important in the beginning of a participatory process, specially as an ethical issue with participants:
• Clarification on what are the overall intentions of key actors like government in this case, or…