10 am on 31st March..Insitute of Social Studies Trust office, Delhi

About 20 of us from different backgrounds and profiles ( medical doctors, researchers, evaluators, managers, implementing agency staff, librariarn, accountant, private sector consultant, development sector consultant, etc!) met  for Jean Louis Lamboray’s book presentation. This was followed by some deep discussions. Here is what we harvested together. I have the privilege to post it. …

ILO's global strategy on decent work for domestic work consists of strengthening national capacities and institutions including policy and legislative reform. In order to strengthen the domestic worker movement in Delhi and Chennai, Ms Reiko Tsushima, International Labour Organisation, ILO  shares her experience in use of community life competence approach to build competent domestic workers and development of Self assessment. Suneetha Eluri, ILO recorded the video in Chennai October…

Background: In the Systemic participatory action research project by Institute of Development Studies for Freedom Fund and Geneva Global we are using SALT with four organisations in the states of Bihar and UP in India. We have noted that facilitators from the NGOs are observing transformation in their own personal lives through SALT. Here are stories from my team mates at PGS  from UP who have started paying more attention to listening not only to the communities but also to their family…

National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD) is an autonomous Institute under NITI Aayog ( erstwhile Planning commission), Government of India. NILERD organises M&E course for foreign professionals. I took a session on SALT and its application in M&E and development.

We had a lot of discussion around importance of us asking the communities what they want rather than going with our pre-determined agenda. A participant from Kenya remarked that the…

This is a story from two creative people who are associated with Salvation Army UK and have expertise in video documentation- John Anscombe and Neil Maclnnes.  The blog captures their perspective as observers of SALT process in the community. Neil filmed the Glocon in the US. Neil on his return to the UK shared his experience with John. I happened to note their insights!…

Constellation and Le Pont du Tamrinier have organised the Global Learning Festival fwhere we are sharing and exchanging on community response to different issues.

Here comes the newsletter number four. Its short and sweet.

We are spending today and tomorrow on building knowledge assets with communities. You will short notes on that, meeting of national country teams, powerful sharing on…

Here is the newsletter number 3 from the Global Learning Festival. I liked the following elements from the contributions

• Creative- there is a drawing, poem etc
• French colleagues responded!
• Three nice things of the day
• Virtual participants shared!
• Collaborative newsletter

GLF5thAprilnewsletter

Warmly,

Rituu

Today in the Global Learning Festival we divided into four teams to being the SALT visits. The joy and excitement on the faces of the team members who returned from the SALT visits was a beautiful sight. How just listening, learning and appreciating can stimulate community to respond- simple yet powerful. Read the details in today's newsletter

GLF4thApril…

The newsletter is GLF 3rd April Attachment

In a nutshell…

People arrived from about 11 countries. Conversations flow…the application of SALT is moving to many more areas. SALT is beginning to permeate in all spheres of personal as well as professional life.  SALT begins from self, thereafter with the family. Moving to the profession we apply it  with our…

[Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) with support from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) will undertake impact evaluation of Constellation’s SALT approach for  community involvement in increasing immunization coverage in three districts of Assam in India. Today the project kicked off to share and receive inputs from   government officials at an event held in Guwahati. During the meeting, Dr. Biraj Kanti Shome, Consultant, Community Processes (Regional…

Team of five- a husband-wife duo, two brothers, engineer, dietician, doctor, footballer, MBA, from two different states, stationed in front of the computer screen and conversation on skype! I knew the couple but others I  met for the first time on skype and I dared to ask a very philosophical question 'what makes us human'.

The answers were - we are human because we…

Venue: Community Development Journal conference Edinburgh,

Time: late afternoon,– 2nd July 2015

 I was attending the session on Raising Refugee Women’s Voices facilitated by Fiona Ballantyne in which shared how her organization has tackled key issues around asylum and international protection, and the extent to which ‘institutions’ have responded to the insights and aspirations of refugee and asylum seeking women.

Two women both from Africa shared their…

On 21st Sep, I shared about Constellation's SALT approach and community life competence process with 27 students of Monitoring and Evaluation course organised by Government of India in Narela near Delhi. The students are professionals from different countries of the world.

There was a moment when when I asked them of their dream for Monitoring and Evaluation in year 2020. In groups they discussed on this and the discussion was very rich. It was even richer, vibrant when each group…

Sarah Mount from Anti-Slavery International invited me  to conduct a training for one of its partner NGOs, Jan Jagriti Kendra (JJK) based in Chhattisgarh (India). JJK works with communities who go to other states of India for work and end up being bonded labourers especially in brick lins.

In the learning event there were 40 participants including NGO staff, volunteers and community members.  JJK team noted that their challenge in working with communities was that community members…

Background- We have been using community life competence process to develop self assessment framework for domestic workers on decent working conditions. This is in Delhi under an ILO partnership with Institute of Social Studies Trust. In CLCP, after the communities develop a common dream, we facilitate self assessment ie where they are in terms of their dreams and where they want to go. Similarly, under this project in a workshop about 20-25 domestic workers did their…

I had the opportunity to facilitate community life competence process with domestic workers. This is part of the work for which Reiko and Suneetha from ILO Delhi office have invited us to use the approach to develop a participatory monitoring tool for the domestic workers on their working conditions. The event brought together domestic workers, their families, NGOs, employers, Trade unions and ILO staff . We saw slight changes emerge which gave us hope. Reflections showed that strength-based…

 “Our biggest dream is that our employers treat us with love and care and dignity. They trust us and value our work. They do not discriminate against us. We have the same blood as them.” That was the comment by one of the domestic worker in her early thirties.  This dream was echoed by 20 domestic workers of Kalyanpuri area in outskirts of Delhi. They said that some employers are nice but some are very harsh. Some even keep different utensils for them to eat. It takes both sides to…

Mid afternoon sun shines bright as we pass by a garden to Jaja (grandma) Agnes house.  She is the secretary of older persons group in Kabaale, a suburb community of Entebbe, Uganda. What surprises us is that out of about 13 women there are three women who are much younger- two in their late thirties and one is 16 years old Paulina. Multiple generations coming together in meeting convened by older women is common in this community. When people are raised in different time periods, their…

Do you want to help your community move forward using their own strengths?

Interested to facilitate the Community Life Competence Process as a practical approach to build, strengthen and sustain communities?

The Constellations Blended Learning Course might fit your needs!

 What can I expect?

The Constellations Blended Learning…