Robyn Stratton-Berkessel interviewed Jean Louis Lamboray, Chair of the Constellation.  I got to know some aspects of the Constellation story which I did not know before and thoroughly enjoyed Robyn's sweet voice and JL's humour. This also demonstrates the power of Podcasts and how hearing a voice, emotion in the voice, laughter, interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee  can connect you greater with the person and the story. Thank you…

 Today, Institute of Applied Manpower Research invited me to facilitate a session of Community life competence and SALT with a group of government officers from Jammu and Kashmir. The participants found it very hard to answer the question- what are you proud of? If you ask us what are your failures are it is very easy to answer. We are not used to this question. Concluding remark was that if one is appreciated one is more likely to take action!

Here is the…

IAMR invited me to orient government officers from Jammu and Kashmir on community life competence and SALT. There were 22 officers, young group. It was last day of their five day training and they were to leave in the evening. 

We spent the beautiful morning discussing what makes us human. Out came many virtues, values, emotions, the sharing was deep. We are in no hurry for the tea break, they said! We shared stories and identified strengths in each other.…

Here I want to tell you a story, a story of women who were quiet and shy. What happened that they turned champions of the community? This is an example of  what we call in the Constellation a 'local response'. 

India competence trained the CARE EMPHASIS team in Mumbai who applied Community life competence on the issue of HIV with the migrant community for past 10 months.  Care team informed us that before community…

In development sector, we talk about going to scale. Can the NGOs do this on their own with limited funding and small staff? What if the community takes on the responsibility to share their vision, strategies and actions on issues they have taken action? What would happen? Here is an example from Mumbai area in India where the Constellation team, India competence, facilitated community life competence a strength-based approach with migrant communities on the issue of  HIV. Some interesting…

I was fortunate to attend a session by Chris Collison, Knowledge Management specialist on learning.  He was one of the speakers at Africa Evaluation Association Conference  held recently in Yaounde, Cameroon. Here are some of the points Chris shared:

Individual learning happens naturally. When we move from individual learning to group of people learning collectively there is a big leak. Learning does not spread naturally from person to person. Moreover, learning decays over time when…

Brief English translation

In this video, Yamuna Nayak, M&E officer CARE EMPHASIS project, Mumbai shares her experience of community life competence (CLC). India competence has been working with her team on community engagement in this project on cross-border migration and HIV.

Pre CLC scenario- Our team especially…

Here is a brief translation in English- 

Sanskruti Desais is project coordinator of Bangla speaking community under the Care India EMPHASIS project in Mumbai on cross-migration and HIV. In this video she elaborates on how after application of community life competence with Bangla speaking migrant women, the ownership on the issue of HIV has risen. She…

CARE EMPHASIS team works on issue of cross-border migration and HIV.  For last few years the team in  Mumbai has been working in destination for Nepali and Bangla speaking migrant community. The work includes providing information on HIV, outreach, infotainment etc. However engaging the community in HIV response was a challenge. 

Here is what happened…

Scenario in April 2013

CARE invited us (India competence) in April 2013 to introduce community life competence to…

India competence is a group of people and organisations in India who believe in strength-based approaches like Community life competence. We meet on skype everymonth. But in Feb 2013 we decided to facilitate conversation between communities from two States in India- Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It was exciting for Anthony, Prabakar and me to join in with communities on Skype. We decided that let funds not stop an interaction between us and communities. Here are the minutes and after…

Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), a government institute, Delhi, India invited me to facilitate a session on strength-based approach and evaluation. IAMR is conducting a three month course on Monitoring and Evaluation for international students.

Strength-based approaches believe that in every environment there are individuals,…

I have an experience to share from Molvum village, Nagaland where the involvement of local leaders has increased leading to concrete action on HIV issues. The story was shared by Jacinta, I noted it and Geoff Parcell edited. Thanks to Jacinta and Geoff!

 …

Here is the dream from India competence Skype meeting held on  19^th January 2012

Participants: Anthony, Indumathi, M L Prabakar, Mukesh Bhachawat, Prabhakar Sinha, Vicky, Rituu B  Nanda

Could not join due to connectivity and other issues- Bobby Ramakant,…

I was in grade XII…My favourite subject was ‘Public administration and Management’.  I was the teacher’s pet and wanted to excel the subject.

For me mastering the subject meant that I gave my best and stood first in the class. However, I had no rivalry with others and always compared myself with my own performance in the  examination. I always topped but what happened in Class XII examination had a deep impact on me. I found that I had stood second in the class. I was…

Caring presence that motivates expanding change Glocon->Tondo, Manila, Philippines, 3-7 September 2012

 “I felt that the next generation may do more than we can do”--Fely…

August 2011- Chiangmai, Thailand...Constellation’s Global Support team meeting is on, mid morning...with Jean Louis, Marlou, Gaston, Phil, Laurence We have faced the economic recession, are a bit low. The atmosphere gloom and frustration as we had to take the tough decision of shutting down our Chiangmai head office and move it to Belgium.

As we discuss the coming year I spring an idea... I wish to meet all the Constellation friends face-to-face... how much energy it will give…

We discussed how facilitators from diffferent approaches facilitate and encourage communtiies to take action on issues of their concern and how community life competence approach can learn from others experiences and improve on it. 130 people shared in 10 different languages.

The highlight for me was when a private sector participant said- I had forgotten that I was a human being in corporate settings…

Constellation with SIAAP and India Competence is organising the Global Learning Festival -20th to 24…

“We are happy to be here at Kolkata, hosted by Durbar Mahila Samanvaya Committee (DMSC). However, we wanted to be in Washington but we were not allowed because sex workers are considered criminals” This was what I heard over and over again at the International AIDS Conference Hub held at Kolkata, India.

This was my debut at an International AIDS conference. I was happy that I was at this Festival for what it signified. Every two years, an International AIDS Conference takes…

Glocon- A revelation of local movement through dialogue; facilitated connection; happening in many countries; a global and local community conversation which explores strengths for response to HIV and critical concerna. The Glocon team was in Ukraine from June 16^th-22nd, 2012. In Ukraine, HIV is a serious concern –of note currently is the vulnerability of the large…