Commitment to Paolo Friere's pedagogy of the oppressed and his education theory were detractors to a comprehensive understanding of SALT. It seemed natural to relate SALT with other practices of community engagement. The first SALT workshop in Karachi (2020, 5 days, with two community visits) triggered a query: how is SALT different from the participatory approaches predicated on Paolo's Freire's vision of social transformation, and the role of adult education? The answer…

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Blogs facilitate learning of SALT



There is a push, gentle but persistent, to write blogs. Experience the push, and start pushing others. This is a wonderful approach for advancing the learning of SALT. What does this writing do ? As must be obvious to those with a flourish for writing blogs, experiences of SALT surface to endorse its learning, and its acceptance deepens within the writer of the blog. Ownership of SALT, as something that is practiced begins to take root. Let us… Continue

SALT as part of Every Day Life

Kausar S Khan



Aristotle spoke of ethics being a habit, and one wonders whether SALT can be a habit. Professionally using methodologies that bring into practice community centeredness, SALT became the foundational stone of all participatory methods – including participatory rural appraisal and theatre of the oppressed. Why is SALT the epicenter of all participatory approaches? The answer is simple; it draws attention to…

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A Challenge to teaching SALT

Kausar S Khan

Draft 1, 25^th March 2023

 

The essence of SALT is crystal clear. It is a strength focused approach, built on stimulation and appreciation of communities engaged with SALT. Listening is another key element of SALT, as it enables the SALT Facilitator to stay engaged with the community being engaged. What is learnt and what is transferred assists the SALT…

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As we focus on SALT and gain insights in ourselves and those with whom we work, we also bring to it a variety of experiences and knowledge that we have accumulated. These additions need to be pondered over specially to see whether there is harmony between SALT and additional learnings, or some contradictions take place. While inadvertent contradictions present a challenge to all SALT champions, the harmony elements too need to be acknowledged, and not…

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Coming from a country where English language is not the mother tongue of the vast majority of its population, and where even the national language is not commonly understood in rural areas and small town, and especially by women, introducing SALT has been a challenge.  How to convey the meaning by each letter of SALT? This initial hurdle was soon overcome, and relevant words were found for each SALT letter.  However, the local acronym emerging from the translations was not used, as it…

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How is one to introduce herself/himself to a marginalized community, after having been introduced to SALT and advised to take the SALT approach. After initial greetings, and thanking the community members for being there, is the person to say: I am going to use the SALT approach with you…  This will help you understand yourself.

 

 An informal discussion with a group of community based workers led to a discussion on how they introduced themselves on their…

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There is a story about a man claiming to have taught his dog simple mathematics. When asked to to demonstrate that his dog has learnt simple math, he readily brought his dog and placed, in front of the dog, some cards with numbers on them. He told the dog to show what is 2+2. The dog went to the cards and after sniffing them picked one with number 5 on it. Somebody said:   Hey! Your dog does not know basic math! The man retorted, I had said, I taught him math, I…

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SALT draws attention to a two-way process of learning. On the one hand, is the SALT Facilitator who introduces SALT to a person/group. These recipients begin to learn and so does the facilitator. Both come with their own luggage of knowledge and experience, and both are important, as SALT penetrates them and makes a place for itself. This process is critical, and recipient’s knowledge and experience (K&E) must be respected, as it is to…

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Constellation has many Facilitators, and they are its strength. The have innumerable workshops for participants to understand SALT.  My question to them : Do you know how many learners who came to your workshop carried forward SALT, and how did they do so ? And, how many who just never carried it forward, and why did they turn away?

I attended a 5 days workshop on SALT, in Karachi, about 3 years ago. As am a trainer/facilitator of learning of people at various levels (community level,…

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Dreams can be of individuals, of small groups (e.g HIV/TB/Hep C infected people in a village) --  of  the elderly in a village (as happened in Uganda) or of the whole community with its sub groups based on gender, ethnicity, class, religion, occupation.  While the community is to make choices, SALT Facilitator also has a role to play. For example, in four village settings in the mountain regions of Pakistan, after a community ended their discussion/sharing about  how they see their village…

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Place of stories in SALT

Some learning about stories for SALT

Kausar SK

Telling and listening stories is not a new phenomenon. Story telling has been around forever, it seems. It is not difficult to recall stories heard during childhood. As adults too we hear stories and tell stories, but when do we start reflecting on them ? While like fish in water we live with stories, we stop being a fish in water when we start  thinking about them , and wonder what they do…

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We made a bridge !

(photo courtesy: Rafique Tunio)

The bridge may be rickety, but it is a source of pride for the villagers of Rato Rind of Taluka Mirpur Sakro, District Thatta.

At a SALT introductory session, when participants were asked to share the collective response for a common problem, (first question of the SALT session), one villager said: …

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