Over the past month, the LEARN team for 2014 have shared personal dreams and a shared dream for LEARN in 2014.

Our dream as the LEARN team is to work from the strengths of each member in order to expand our wealth of knowledge. To develop tools that can be used for capturing valuable lessons from our experiences through a process that inspires more sharing, and developing the expertise of the wider coaching…

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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…

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The past 2 weeks have found Boris, Autry and I in Suriname working with a fantastic team to integrate WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) with the community life competence process.  There is the phrase - 'Water is Life'.  We have heard reflections this week that you can have water, but no real 'life' in communities.  Trust, respect and vision are also needed.  The skilled, passionate, committed team in Suriname is going to teach us all alot about this in the coming months.  Thank you in…

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We had a very inspiring visit to Ethiopia last week with IIRR and partners who have been working hard at integrating elements of ACP into their existing Community Managed Risk Reduction (CMDRR) Strategy.  You will see the excellent photos and video clips that Ricardo has been uploading over the past couple of days.

 

It got me thinking about the word 'integration'.  Seems everyone is using it these days, and as with many things we start saying it and stop thinking deeply about…

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Last week, we had the opportunity for the second support visit to IIRR Partners in Ethiopia. We were hosted by JeCCDO in Dire Dawa and joined by SOS Borana. On the second day of the visit, we spent a few hours thinking through how ACP and the IIRR Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) processes compliment and add value to each other. Then we made a visit to a community where 7 months ago JeCCDO had 'introduced' the dream and self-assessment. We spent the first hour sitting with… Continue

The Constellation has the privilege of partnership with IIRR/CORDAID partners in Ethiopia. The focus is on integrating AIDS Competence with their community managed disaster risk reduction process. We are in the midst of the first follow-up visit, following an exposure visit to Kenya and an initial training workshop in 2009.

The first week was spent in Borana, hosted by SOS. SOS works with pastoral communities and here are some reflections from that visit:

'when…

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