SALT is not alone , Kausar s Khan

[Kausar Skhan]

As we focus on SALT and gain insights in ourselves and those with whom we work, we also bring to it a variety of experiences and knowledge that we have accumulated. These additions need to be pondered over specially to see whether there is harmony between SALT and additional learnings, or some contradictions take place. While inadvertent contradictions present a challenge to all SALT champions, the harmony elements too need to be acknowledged, and not ignored.

Community development workers are accustomed to the word participation, and strive to put this concept into practice. Under the rubric of participation of communities, many methods and approaches have emerged . The most well known are the ones based on Paolo Friere’s approach for facilitating the oppressed for social transformation. Many tools have been developed, and the four volumes titled Training for Transformation provide a great source of material for facilitating the community members to become analysts of their own lives. The Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools also function in a similar manner, whereby the community is the analyst and the outsider using the tools are facilitators (and not teachers/experts wanting to tell people what to do).

So, what is the relationship between SALT approach, participatory tools and PRA tools? is SALT meant to exclude them or use them to support the SALT approach? Here is one example:

In the Community Engagement Centre (CEC) of Indus Health Network (IHN), Karachi, SALT approach is being integrated in the community based programs of CEC. While SALT provides the entry in the community and help build community’s social capital, PRA tools are also used to help community to become more conscious of their own realities. Thus, the community draw an illness matrix, and draws circles on the ground to see the distribution of class amongst them, livelihood of women and men, distribution of children in and out of school, to name some elements of the work. All this can be said to belong to step 1 of the CLCP learning cycle.

 

[Célicia Theys]

Thanks so much for this one Kausar! ABsolutely,  SALT is not alone, and greatly enriched by the tools we pick and choose from other inspiring approaches! Re-posting here a text by a colleague here at Belcompetence, Xenia, who shares how she weaved SALT together with "ChancesToChange", a revolutionary board-game.

"I am part of 2 vibrant communities, both trying to bring the most beautiful world our hearts know is possible into being: the first one is the SALT-community, of course. The second one is the ChancesToChange Community (C2C), a growing international movement using a wildly original board game to connect and co-create meaning.

Last week during a meeting with members of the C2C-community it felt natural for me to weave the methodologies of both communities with each other, combining the CLCP-cycle with the C2C-cards.

   

After introducing ourselves in a creative way, showing who we truly are, we listened to each other’s stories about showing up and daring greatly. We then connected the strengths of each participant with the drawing and the text of their card. This helped us to understand even better who we are together as a community.

For the dream phase we used the yellow card n°12 and its triad – Soil, Soul, Society – a great inspiration to feel what future wants to emerge.

Weaving SALT-CLCP and the ChancesToChange cards have been very rewarding. It deepened our conversations and helped us to co-create new wisdom.

Feel free to contact me if you want more information about this experience or if you want to discover the ChancesToChange board game and its transformative power.

Warm greetings from Belgium,

Xenia Orgielewski
[e-mail]
cell: +32 (0)496/43.86.50"

Et en français:

"Je fais partie de deux communautés dynamiques, qui tentent toutes deux de faire naître le plus beau monde que nos cœurs savent possible : la première est la communauté SALT, bien sûr. La seconde est la communauté ChancesToChange (C2C), un mouvement international en pleine expansion qui utilise un jeu de société très original pour se connecter et co-créer du sens.

La semaine dernière, lors d'une réunion avec des membres de la communauté C2C, il m'a semblé naturel de tisser les méthodologies des deux communautés l'une avec l'autre, en combinant le cycle CLCP avec les cartes C2C.

Après nous être présentés de manière créative, en montrant qui nous sommes vraiment, nous avons écouté les histoires des uns et des autres sur le fait de se montrer et de réellement oser. Nous avons ensuite mis en relation les points forts de chaque participant avec le dessin et le texte de sa carte. Cela nous a permis de comprendre encore mieux qui nous sommes en tant que communauté.

Pour la phase de rêve, nous avons utilisé la carte jaune n°12 et sa triade - Sol, Âme, Société - une grande inspiration pour ressentir quel avenir souhaite émerger.

Le tissage du SALT-CLCP et des cartes ChancesToChange a été très enrichissant. Cela a approfondi nos conversations et nous a aidés à co-créer une nouvelle sagesse.

N'hésitez pas à me contacter si vous voulez plus d'informations sur cette expérience ou si vous voulez découvrir le jeu de société ChancesToChange et son pouvoir transformateur.

Salutations chaleureuses,

Xenia"