Don't Underestimate The Power Of SALT

[Jayashri Kamble]

We work on the subject of Gender Equality with a social organization called Avani in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. At present, we are using SALT process in 5 villages under the Global Fund for Children project which aims to build leadership of children, youth and community on Gender Equality.

We decided to do a  SALT visit to a family in Kerli village on 10th November.

 

What happened in the meeting?

We ( Shahrukh and I) met the mother in her home. Her daughters are part of our organisation’s children group. After introducing us  and sharing about our visit, we gave an example about SALT and we all shared our life stories.

 

The lady told that before marriage, the economic condition of her family was not good. Father used to drink a lot of alcohol due to which her mother had to work very hard to run the house. The lady said that as a young girl she had a dream that she would become a doctor, but there was no money for education. So she left school after the tenth standard and started going to work with her mother. She had a younger brother, so she thought that “if I am not able to fulfil my dreams, then my brother will fulfil my dream”. She stopped her studies to reduce the expenses and put her trust in her brother and after that supported him to study. Today her brother has become a doctor. She is very proud of him.

 

Conclusion

During these conversations, her two daughters who were with her, also became very emotional and said that "the dreams of our mother which remained unfulfilled, we will fulfill the dreams together." When she cried, her other  family members who walked in asked her why she was crying. For the first time the rest of her family came to know about her story. Hearing this story, tears filled their eyes with sadness. Their mother’s story invoked confidence in the daughters that to get something in life, one has to lose something, but if we face everything without giving up, then nothing will be difficult. We shared her strengths and informed her that we are going to work with all the people of the village in a similar way.

 

 

AER

At the end of the meeting, we conducted an AER.

1) What went well in today's meeting?

She told that in the meeting held today, she had not shared with anyone till now and she is proud that going ahead her daughters will fulfill her dream.

2) What else would you do well in the next meeting?

Whenever there is next meeting, only then there will be a discussion with all the members of the house, through which the strength of every member of the house will be known.

 

(Blog by Jayshri with support from Shahrukh and Imran)

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Thanks Jayshri for your excellent facilitation