SALTY Valentine's Day in Bordeaux

[Luc Barriere-Constantin]

On the Valentine’s day Loli & I had the opportunity to present the SALT/CLCP approach to 20 students in Professional License for International Solidarity, at the University Montaigne, Bordeaux – France. We had one full day to present and discuus the various components of the approach and to carry out a SALT visit to a Sciences Po students’ association (Deka Ewe) active in Togo. The students were very much interested on the practical aspects of the approach and they reacted passionately to the multiple stories that were illustrating the presentation. During the SALT visit, their various questions, based on their first exposure to SALT, allowed a very smooth and friendly dialogue during which we could appreciate the strong capacities of the visited group : openess, strong motivation, listening skills with the local population and strong desire to transfer to the togolese friends.

The students in International Solidarity have been touched by the new perspective given by the practice of SALT and the purpose of the intervention toward greater ownership of the communities. They said that the approach gave them a new  vision of the world and a new impetus for developing their future actions.  

We took this opportunity to briefly present the book « What makes us Human ? » (French version) and we sold two and leave others to the organizers of the meeting.

It is always an intense moment for us to realize how the human approach to communities is resonnating with people, old or young, as we explain our way of working and thinking ; and even if only a few students are using and spreading the words of Local Response around them, this is a positive and encouraging outcome to our efforts.