"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.."…

On May 28, 2013, for the first time in the history of Swaziland, Cervical Cancer Screening Services were launched in the rural community of Ngculwini, just outside the town of Manzini. The launch saw 30+ women screened for cervical cancer. It is exciting times indeed for the women of Swaziland, given that it has the highest HIV prevalence (26%), coupled with very high poverty levels (63%). Below is a group photo of the team from Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, Swaziland Breast…

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.…

May 28, 2013 By fiona 

Il existe au Burundi de nombreux groupes agissant contre les violences basées sur genre, mais ils ne sont pas coordonnés. Les réseaux communautaires seraient un mécanisme adéquat de prévention et de lutte contre les VBG : ils permettraient aux acteurs de se soutenir mutuellement pour entamer les changements de mentalités et de…

Financial mismanagement. Lay-offs of local and international staff. Inappropriate conduct by leadership. Finally, a visit planned from headquarters to see what’s going on. What do you do?

A superior continues to make passes at you. You find out you’re paid less than someone doing your exact same job. Someone takes undue credit for work you did.

The rules don’t…

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…

Hi,

I have met many of you and still I am aware that I also haven't met many of you. Dutch competence just started up this year for real and we did a workshop SALT/CLCP in Holland. We ended with a laugh and taped a song we created in the workshop to share part of our dream and practices.

Then we realised: we want to really reach out and get to learn the other country teams and decided to make this video into an invitation. An invitation to reach back out to us…

Een tafel vol kleurrijke snacks, van scones tot aardbeien en van Limburgse vlaaien tot Mexicaanse guacamole. Zo begon de workshop Discovering Dutch Competence in april in de Hub in Amsterdam. Eventuele niet uitgeslapen ogen klaarden direct op. Deze driedaagse cursus met enthousiaste deelnemers uit heel het land smaakte nu al naar meer.

Met het ontbijt nog maar net achter de kiezen was het echter nog geen tijd voor snacks. Wel voor vijf katalyserende vragen die de groep meteen aan het…

De Indische buurt in Amsterdam kreeg ruim vijf jaar geleden de twijfelachtig eer toebedeeld tot de 20 slechtste wijken van Nederland te horen. Criminaliteit, armoede, ellende joegen autochtone Nederlanders de buurt uit. De toenmalige minister van Wonen, Wijken en Integratie, Ella Vogelaar, had het inzicht om dit soort wijken, de uitdaging te stellen om Prachtwijken te worden.

Met die missie, en een zakje geld, werd Rob van Veelen de Indische buurt ingestuurd als wijkregisseur.

"Ik…

Chers amis,

Le livre Qu'est-ce qui nous rend humains? sort aujourd'hui dans les librairies de France et de Belgique. J'en suis très heueux, et je remercie tous les membres de notre communauté, car c'est notre expérience collective que je raconte. J'ai cité de nommbreuses expériences que vous avez relatées ici. Il y en a tant d'autres…

Comment la visite SALT peut profiter à celui ou celle qui la pratique ?

L’humilité dans son savoir-faire et son savoir-être

Permet d’aller au delà du diagnostic du problème, car SALT est une démarche qualitative qui part du principe que chaque individu, chaque communauté fait face selon ses capacités au défi qui le concerne. En cherchant à savoir ce qui se fait on comprend mieux les limites des méthodes antérieures.

Comment l'utiliser pour un véritable…

The short game: HIV and food security

Community development in Sub-Sahara Africa has been clouded by the emergency response mentality, which was exhibited in the knee jerk reaction of many countries in the initial response to the HIV pandemic. This has resulted in governments and community leaders concentrating all their efforts on combating the disease’s impact rather than designing strategic interventions that will close the tap of new infections.

Efforts to combat the…

Since mid-May 2012, I was more in Sekadau. It’s about 7 hours trip by car from Pontianak, my hometown.



Last year, I chatted with a Pak Rasyid, 56 yo. He was an officer at the district Bappeda (Development Planning Board Office). At December Pak Rasyid was retired, so at 2-3 months before December, he was more often doing business at home that has been lived since 20 years ago. He and his wife are a wedding organizer. He had a warm personality; I used to talk and chit-chat with…

I had, in my last blog, reported about my meeting with the Organisation, BEYOND of Singapore and shared my interview with the team, Gerard, Chris and Cheryl. 

Later on in the day, I visited a couple of team-mates working with the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), Singapore (www.nvpc.org.sg) and directly associated with SGCares (www.sgcares.org), They are involved in community development. I…

I might sound philosophical when I share a story that I heard in my younger days.

A disciple asked a sage which religion was the right one to know God. The sage walked silently by a tree in the heat of a sunny morning with the disciple. He then pointed to the reflections of the sunlight on the ground beneath the…

“How’s the weather inside your head today?” This was the introductory question during the ‘Taste of SALT’ workshop in Amsterdam in March 2013. The weather in my head? I was expecting to introduce myself by telling everyone where I’m from, my profession, passions and maybe, if everyone else did, my age too. This is how we are used to describe ourselves, or maybe even define ourselves. It creates certain angles how people can typify others.…

During a recent visit to Singapore, I met Gerard, Chris and Cheryl and recorded an interview with them.

Gerard heads the organisation, BEYOND, that works with the community in Singapore. Chris and Cheryl work with him. These girls were at the Global Learning Festival held in Y2012 in India.

Thanks to Rituu B Nanda's reference, I connected with Gerard and reconnected with the two girls when I visited them at their office. What started as an informal conversation turned…

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,…