SALT as an opener for community conversations

[Aaliyah Busolo Quintonne]

I work with L'Afrikana in 10 slum areas like kabiria,kibera,waithaka and kawangware in Nairobi, Kenya. We work with adolescent girls, particularly on the issue of teenage pregnancy. Although the law allows abortion in exceptional medical circumstances, girls tend to go to quack doctors for termination of pregnancy. Unsafe abortion and its complications like excessive bleeding is a major problem in Kenya, endangering the lives of many young women. Young girls who are pregnant are under a lot of trauma.

Organisations which work with communities often look for problems and forget to appreciate the strengths. NGOs usually go and question these girls.

We are now a part of Constellation's Go Girl project and got introduced to SALT approach

Using SALT approach, when we appreciate the girls and the way families support them, it encourages them to open up and share. I was trained in peacebuilding, resilience, non-violent communication and trauma and I want to spread this amongst the communities. SALT approach is helping us to build trust with the girls who have faced a lot of trauma, families and communities who open up, share and are motivated to take action.

The importance of using SALT approach while working with communities,it facilitates building of trust between us and the community members we visit. It also enables story sharing as we have various methods of stimulating conversations depending on whom we are visiting.

We have set up a youth facilitation team in the village to spread SALT and stimulate community action.