It was raining outside when we were warmly welcomed in a big primary school of which’s entrance was filled with hand drawn hearts made by the young students.

On Friday the 7^th of February, the Constellation was again invited for a SALT-visit – this time in a primary school in Antwerp, Belgium. Constellation members (Marlou De Rouw, April Foster, Jean-Louis Lamboray, Rituu B. Nanda, Phil Forth, Jan Somers, Joke D’haese, Manue Brick and Laurie Khorchi) as well as…

Our friend Gloria passed away peacefully on January 21. The letter below expresses our collective commitment to pursue her dreams. Gloria is truly with us in spirit.

Dear Gloria

Only five weeks ago, I handed over to you at the hospital in Kuching your certificate as Constellation coach and you thanked me. Then I gave you a little wooden box and asked you to open it. You did and brought the box to your lips to kiss its content. These were our Constellation coach…

I am so happy to learn about this new model, thanks goes to Hon. Namara who attracted me to it

So beginning next month, we have started on the move of making it clear to the local leaders in Masaka District - Uganda, and our focus is SALT and older persons.We have written letters to local leaders in Masaka to be made aware of CLCP and issues of Older persons in Masaka District. So we are awaiting to be accorded time. We shall make you posted.

I wish also to thank…

During a recent Constellation LEARN meeting in Belgium, we participated in a SALT visit to a sports club being facilitated in primary schools.  The founders of the club shared with us their approach, which resonated on many levels with the work we do in the Constellation.  One practice that the club uses to build relationships and influence change are home visits to the club members.  This sharing reminded me again of how important home visits have been in my experience, and I wanted to…

A Gafsa, une ville du sud-ouest de la Tunisie, un groupe de jeunes lyciens soutenus par un des professeurs ont pris l’initiative de lutter contre la consommation du cannabis dans leur établissement scolaire. Ces jeunes ont créé une cellule bien organisée avec une distribution de taches, et après la visite Salt des facilitateurs de la plateforme participative santé, ils ont construit leur rêve commun : « Ecole sans drogue », et ont menés des campagnes de sensibilisation par la création d’une…

Voici l'expérience de Manuel Miezi que je publie à sa demande:

Chers amis de la Constellation,

En vous comptant cette expérience  acquise tout au long de mon travail dans la lutte contre le VIH et SIDA, je voudrais remercier en premier lieu le Dieu Tout Puissant créateur de la terre et du ciel et mon créateur aussi pour m’avoir donné la vie pleine, l’intelligence et surtout la bonne santé.

Je m’appelle Manuel Miezi Kiafuatuka, de 59 ans d’âge, marié, père de 7 enfants, 4…

J’étais opposé à la question du VIH SIDA et ne souhaitais pas qu’on en parle dans l’église et même qu’on détache un pasteur pour ce travail. Car c’est une question des gens de mauvaises vies. Les chrétiens ne sont pas concernés. Mais après l’exposé du Pasteur Koya sur le thème pour quoi l’église doit s’impliquer dans la lutte contre le VIH SIDA et la visualisation du film Gédéon que puis je faire , un pasteur qui a le Virus du SIDA dans le sang,…

CORE (Collaboration for Resilience) Approach is a powerful approach to deal with Multi-Actors Platform and I also found this complimentary to the CLCP (Community Life Competency Process) that AAS program in Cambodia office is trying to adapt in its Community Visioning exercise. While CLCP is an approach that is developed to organize community to develop common dream, do self-assessment (to assess the dream to reality), developing community action plan, the CORE approach would…

When a Ugandan faith leaders’ father passed away, as a ‘natural’ reaction, the family started making claims on the families’ wealth, the farm and the land. The widow of old age had no voice in this process and was almost forced out of the house by her own children. Things changed when the faith leader attended a facilitators’ workshop in his district on care and…

During 2013, a small group of people worked on a project to organise the stories that appear on this site so that we can learn more effectively from the experiences of Local Response described here. These experiences sit at the heart of Knowledge Fairs. We organise the content into what we call Knowledge Assets. This note explains a little more about Knowledge Fairs and Knowledge Assets. At the end, there is a link to more material and examples. 

The idea of…

By Isaac Roy Kyeyune, Director at FIND Partners International in Kampala. (This originally appeared as a guest post on how-matters.org.)

The year 2013 saw trends that are changing resource politics for civil society. These are a wakeup call to not only strengthen, but diversity your…

As a public health practitioner and community activist working for health and well-being of community people, I have always seeks a better way to build an admirable understanding between facilitators and community people. During this search I have discover the venerable approach, which I called the “DELA” to, built a trustable relation with community people. We as a facilitator need to very conscious about the various aspects of society, when we visit community with the good…

The Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), Delhi offers a three-months M&E course annually for foreign students. Currently, there are about 25 students from 16 countries currently undergoing the course, and I am one of them.  Rituu B Nanda conducted a session on community life competence during this course. At the end of the session the participants came together in groups to discuss how…

Facilitated S.A.L.T to 21 orphans and at risk children served by Touching Lives Integrated CBO (kombistic.weebly.com). It was awesome with kids acknowledging and appreciating each others strength(s) and great potentials. They realized that nobody was a nobody and that every kid is somebody. They learned to appreciate and encourage each other for that is what everyone needs. At the end of it the kids promised to focus on the positives even as they work on the weaknesses.

Parents have…

Hello!

I wish to share my first experience as a monitoring officer.  I work for the Fiji Government as a monitoring officer.  When the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit was established in 2009, I was tasked to monitor the implementation of the strategic goals of Government by the Ministry of Health, which was done on a quarterly basis.

When I went to monitor in the first quarter of 2010, I walked into the Ministry wearing my hat as a monitoring officer.  After the formulation of…

Médecin urgentiste de formation, j’avais longtemps la conviction que je suis ainsi que mes collègues personnels de santé les plus placés pour connaitre les meilleurs solutions et stratégies pour améliorer la qualité des prestations de soins. Je ne voyais dans les patients que des usagers faibles dont je dois prendre soins d’eux. Jamais, j’ai eu une discussion concernant  l’avis de mes patients sur les services que nous lui rendons  et je n’ais jamais songé à partager avec eux leurs…

Je partage une histoire de Celestin Mukala, facilitateur en RDC (translated in English, below):

Zone de Santé de Bibanga

Aire de Santé^* de Kaponji 

Communautés :

                    ITAV Elèves

                    ITAV Enseignants

               Dans la Zone de Santé de Bibanga, l'Approche Salt fait parler d'elle comme c’est le cas dans l'Aire de Santé de Kaponji. Salt est lié et transféré dans le développement dans sa phase de…

Last year, on the day of face-to-face Community Life Competence (CLC) session, all the CLC trainees of CLC were anticipated to contribute in roll out of CLC approach in Nepal. That day, we Pokhara team Nabaraj and Dipendra planned to carry out CLC program in our working organizations including, various social organizations and ethnic societies. After having series of…

Many people hesitate while they speak in front of the mass. It is not a new thing to all. It is natural to shy and feel awkward when we speak. Effective communication is a key to enter one’s mind, solicit, and share the experiences. It was 11 January 2014; we Dipendra Malla and Nabaraj Adhikari had planned to have a salt visit next day in a youth led social organization called ‘Thakuri Youth Family, Kaski’. Therefore, we made a contact at secretary office and informed them for an informal…

dear friends, thank you for the many collaborations and/or conversations in 2013, all sources of deep inspiration! My wishes for myself in 2014 is to contribute to spreading SALT; …