Dance for Life project with SALT method elements

[Kamilla Sabirova]

After holding Knowledge Fair in Kazan we – Ruslan, Kamilla, Ilgiz (participants of the Kazan Fair and training for trainers) made a  visit to 12-14 years old pupils in a children art school.  We conducted  «Dance for life» project  with SALT visit elements.

First of all we created interactions between us by listening their knowledges  about HIV and AIDS, what’s the difference between them, can we beat it together  and how. We asked their opinion about people living with HIV and whether they are worthy of tolerance. At the beginner of the visit it was uncomfortable atmosphere for us, cause children were tired after classes and they didn’t want to listen anything.  However we had a warmer climate in the room after  doing some joint actions like playing the games, dancing,  viewing the video.  In this way during the conversation with children they became more open for sharing with their  feelings about  a healthy  life stile. 

We have noticed  that children have flexible mind and react very quickly for important questions.  They don’t hide their emotions  and say what they think without prolonged deliberation.  So it’s realy easy process to find common ground for constructive dialogue with them. The most inspiring answer for my question : «What will you do if you find out that your friend or your neighbor has HIV?» was from young  beauty girl who said that «human remains a human in any situations, and the dangerous disease cannot prevent friendship or kind attitude towards people living with HIV».  We are very thankful for every person in this group, they were rather active and openhearted.

In the end of our visit young painters promised us to create pictures about healthy  life stile, real friendship and about joint  victory over HIV/AIDS.  These paintings will be sold in the charity Auction and the money will go for supporting children living with HIV. Some of the pupils wanted to be in our team as volunteers and we were very glad for this desire and of course invited them for training for volunteers.  We hope it wasn’t our  last attendance to this school, cause the meeting was fine and teachers and pupils wish to see us again.

 

[Kamilla Sabirova]

Thank you very much for your nice comments!!! It's good support for us. Yes, I agree with Michael that joint active actions relax people and make people more closely to each other, so it will be easier to listen important information after such things. Answering on Rituu's question is that we find out people like sharing their emotions, experiances, opinions and therefor it's necessary to introduce them for joint dialogue. The more we often hear from children and students beautiful sayings about pieceful world. It's inspiring us for action. Thanks Jean-Louis for such useful note!

[Michael Mc Garrell]

This is a very interesting read, I really like the approach as well. In Guyana we have found that like dance, sports helps in making people comfortable in an environment. For your message to get across you have to ensure that the receiving party is comfortable, if not, it will fly right over their head. The body works with the mind and vice versa. If the mind is not happy the body will not be happy and if the body is not happy the mind will not be happy.  I like the whole approach of using dance and games as an entry point, it stimulates the participant for active participation after all in dance you have to be active :). Thank you for sharing this wonderful experience Kamilla

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Kamilla,

 

This sharing makes me very happy because just a week after the training you have done a SALT visit.What a quick transfer of SALT. I send an ACP clap to you, Ilgiz (!) and Ruslan. Now we have a facilitation blossoming in Kazan. Please convey my congratulations to Sveta and your team.

I know you all have been working in Dance for Life project for some time. What difference did you find when you did the SALT visit from regular visits?

 

Thanks Kamilla. Spasibo.

 

Warm greetings from Delhi,

Rituu

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

Dear Kamilla,

 

Your blog captures some of the essential ingredients of SALT:  you established a relation of trust. As a result, you got another invitation to explore dreams and concerns...

 

Well done!

JL