On 24th March 2026 when the Dhagagia Social Welfare Society (DSWS), India staff came together for a SALT conversation on Zoom, the first thing that struck me was that DSWS is a caring organization that holds a space the staff cherishes. For instance, Saloni said, how much she likes being in the organization, they have a lot of fun working together. Hriday da head of…

“I now have fewer expectations from others,” said Ashika from UNICON Nepal, where she works as a community facilitator.

When I asked if ARC (Addressing Root cause initiative) had affected her life in any way, her answer surprised me. Ashika explained that she belongs to a spiritual group where she had heard teachings about self-reliance and expecting less from others. SALT provided her a way to practise the teaching in her own life.She began to see her…

Today we visited a village called Majilang in Pokhara, Nepal, where the Kopila Nepal team is facilitating community-led responses under the ARC initiative. We were joined by SALT facilitators from  Peace for People and Shakhi.

We facilitated a SALT conversation…

Shristi and I did a SALT visit to village Aarandada, Kisaki district, Pokhara, Nepal with UNICON team under the ARC initiative. Seventeen women from the mothers’ group joined the conversation. Intention of the SALT visit was to help the women recognize their own potential.

During group conversations, I was in a small group with Regina and…

Santhals are one of the largest Adivasi (Indigenous) communities in India. In West Bengal, they are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe and are spread across several districts, especially in the western and northern parts of the state.

In Jan 2026, as I walked through Kewdaha Santhal village in Shantiniketan with the Suchana team, I noticed broken earthen pots hung on outer walls of the houses. I wondered about them and asked Purnima.The Santhals care deeply about birds.…

The ABCD Festival 2026  in Goa created a space where around fifty people from Australia, Canada, India, and Sri Lanka came together to think about what it would really take to change the world. In many ways, these conversations reaffirmed what I have been reflecting and doing.

Everyone cares about something. That care can…

This is a story of adolescent girls in village Kewdaha an indigenous/adivasi village in Bolpur, West Bengal, India, who have begun to shape the future of their village. After a series of intense SALT conversations, Suchana facilitators invited adolescent girls to compile their dream for the village in June 2025. The girls imagined a village free from excessive alcohol consumption and one where education was taken seriously. This dream became a source of motivation for them.…

It was a late winter afternoon when we arrived at the home of a woman in a village, Joka area of West Bengal, India where  NGO Jeevika is facilitating a community-led process using the SALT approach. About twenty women and adolescent girls from two hamlets, Shahdara Para and Hathipara, were waiting for us. There was excitement in the air, as both hamlets had a surprise planned for us. They presented their dream of what their hamlet could look like thirty years from now. Many women said they…

I had the opportunity to introduce the SALT way of working to three organizations- DSWS, PJKS and SSDC in Global Fund for Children’s Mangrove Hills cohort in India-  This is what I learned from total 52 staff members.

Appreciation creates responsibility- This came from Pompa di. I learned that responsibility from the heart does not…

It was men and boys who occupied cultural space during festivals. Avani, Global for Children partner in Kolhapur, Maharashtra (India), facilitated a process of reflection through the SALT approach, where adolescents, women, men, and mothers-in-law  realized their inner power but also the strengths in others which helped them to build a common dream, conduct self-assessment and action…

Global Fund for Children (GFC) emphasizes funding cohorts, groups of organizations with shared interests, to harness social capital and foster transformative change. Within the Addressing Root Causes (ARC) initiative, I co-facilitated the Mangrove Hills Cohort…

In August 2025, a group of fifteen representatives from five NGOs in Nepal came together to establish a cohort, supported by the Global Fund for Children under the Addressing Root Causes (ARC) initiative. The group had an in-depth discussion on the respective roles of NGOs and communities in driving development.

Growing…

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…