With my two team mates Beaw and Loan, I invited 9 Spark Fund Vietnam youth fellows to think about their common dream as a cohort. The fellows are working on individual projects related to climate change.

While they do not see themselves working together as a group yet, they shared insights that were  profound. What…

My takeaways from the Knowledge Fair which was a part of the Addressing Root Cause (ARC) Convening held on 19th April'25. I work with a grantmaking organization Global Fund for children (GFC).

Objective of a Knowledge Fair : In CLCP (Community Life Competence Process) Knowledge Fair is a critical step when communities come togethe…

The Constellation has several strengths, but three stand out for me:

1. The SALT and Community Life Competence process is one of the finest approaches for community and individual behaviour change, as well as for collective action. The approach was developed by learning from community local response in different parts of the world. 
2. Constellation has a Knowledge Management system to capture the experiential knowledge of communities with an online community of practice for…

Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) has been using CLCP and SALT to build ownership of those with mental illness and their families in the PIECES project, Tamil Nadu, India.  In January 2025, SCARF organized a Knowledge Fair, which saw participation from Ekati and Avani organizations as well. My key takeaways:…

Today 25th Feb'2025 evening...Bhatpara Tea Garden, West Bengal, India where Rural Aid is facilitating local, place based coommunity led response using the SALT approach. We sit with a group of 16 people from the Tea garden community, including a grandfather, mothers, young male and female, a health worker, and a local government panchyat member, came together for a SALT conversation.…

Sukon Mardi, a young male farmer from the indigenous Santhali tribe, cycled 40 kilometers to return a lost, visually impaired man to his village—despite warnings from others that the man’s family might accuse him of kidnapping. But Sukon wasn’t deterred. He was determined to reunite the older man with his loved ones after he had been wandering for three months, unable to find his way home.…

ActforGoa convened 40–50 individuals from diverse fields, including government officials, NGO staff, academia, packaging industry, private sector, hydrologists, designers, architects, researchers, ecologists, and wildlife specialists, on 23rd November in Porvorim, Goa. The event focused on strategies to co-design resilience and enhance the quality of life for Goa's future. Famed for its beaches and culture, Goa faces increasing threats from climate change like…

The first time I spoke to S.M Tazammal Haque from Bangladesh Rural Economic Development (BRED) was on 6th Nov 2023. As Nawaz and I were to visit their office later in the month, I shared briefly about SALT and the baseline. There was warmth in his tone that immediately connected us. When we met at the BRED office in Dhaka, we formed an instant bond - we both confessed to not being morning people, which became an ongoing joke between us. …

From 30th Jan to 1st Feb I facilitated SALT and CLCP with Team PIECES from organisation called SCARF in Chennai, India. They are working towards patient-owned approach to mental illness.  When the whole group developed their dream, one of the sub-groups which called themselves Zen group shared their dream how mental health will be envisioned in 10 years. The dream was in the form of pictures. I feel honoured to share it as…

It was a hazy winter evening at the Tea garden community of Dima, around 4 pm- 20th Jan'24. We had conducted one home SALT visit. Nityam and Rati urged us to do another SALT visit to the home of a tea garden worker- Pushpa . Anuradhaji, Shahrukh, and me, we joined them.…

I used to work in UNDP Solution Exchange when I was first exposed to SALT. Laurence from the Constellation interviewed me for the newsletter, find the extract here. At that time, CLCP was called Aids competence (ACP). I started facilitating much later, as it took a lot of time to process a strength-based approach and move from an expert mindset. I did not give up and I finally took the first…

We enter a spic and span house of a couple who are organic farmers. My colleague Vikrant​ from Avani has been having SALT conversations with the ​male farmer, Mr Sanjay Chavan from Village Kandgaon, Maharashtra. The farmer has also contributed to the village's dream during this process which included a dialogue with village adolescents and children on organic farming.

When we asked him about the good things he has…

Philip Forth describes, "A Knowledge Fair is an event is which people come together to learn and to share based on their experiences. The guiding principle is that all of have something to learn and that all of us have something to share. There are no experts."

I have been part of several learning festivals and Knowledge Fairs. I wrote a blog/compiled photos after almost all the events. 

Rural Aid works with Tea Garden communities in West Bengal and started using SALT more than a year ago. I asked the wonderful team the reason why those working with communities take so much time to understand and use SALT. Here is what they said- Very powerful and clear. Thank you Rural Aid team!

Reason…