how to best transfer the ACP

[rebeka sultana]

Hello all, greetings from Jakarta. After our visit to papua and exposures to local SALT team... we found we already started applying SALt in our day to day life, the experience of SALT is phenomenal .... we could not just stop there and wait to share with colleagues back at work. So we arranged a Learning Afternoon at our office for colleagues.

My questions to you all.....how do i measure me that 'SALT is my way of thinking' ...is it that i always speak positively and nurture the wholesome seeds in others? even in strong dis agreement how i keep calm and get positive?
people say ...oh i heard about that participatory process but what is the difference ?? How we present the SALT, not only as AIDS Competence but also as Life Competence....

I will write more once i see you all writing too.....

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

Rebeka,

How do I measure that 'SALT is my way of thinking' ?
I don't know if one can measure one's way of thinking, but I'll offer one suggestion:
I can feel when I am UNSALTy: then I become stressed and bossy
I can feel when I am SALTy: then I am happy.
So for me the best measure of my SALTiness is my happiness....
But that is just me; I am sure that others will give more suggestions...
Have a great weekend

JL

[rebeka sultana]

good to see your reply. Useful.
It needs lot of practicing and mindfullness.
and once you are salty.....you can do , bring anything in your life and the lives of people around you.
Happiness is a choice.

my next question is in a community like merauke how long it would take for an external to see the visible changes in peoples lives who practices SALT?
the salt teams need to record the changes of people, like what was it there before salt started and how it is now......so when we get questions we can share them to externals.

Novi, rachel, lourence,marloue,lawan, risya, widad, ekky, harry please come and reflect your thoughts here!

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Rebeka,

I am Rituu from India. I am following your discussion closely and enjoying it.

Best regards,

Rituu

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Jean-Louis,

Beautiful! As Rebeka says its not easy to remain positive and appreciative when someone continues to be negative. Gaston gave me a good mantra when one is low or stressed. He suggests remembering two wonderful things one is blessed with during a stressful phase.

Rituu

[rebeka sultana]

Ritu, good to see you. Now we are friends! okay?
Tell me about your work and learning with ACP at UNAIDS India.
best,
rebeka

[M.L. Prabakar]

Hi Rebeka Sultana,
I am Prabakar from India. Your question is interesting and I have also asked this myself. I see lot of positiveness in the statements you have made. I am responding to the second aspect of " being calm in strong disagreement". To me it signifies clearly that you are in disagreement with the situaion and not with the individual. I say this because you are still relating to the individual by being calm and you are able to be there and appreciate the differences that prevails between you and others. People view situations and respond differently and you are there with them to learn from what they have experienced. I think you have covered almost all aspects of SALT through this like, Supporting their prespective, Appreciating their sharing and Appreciating the difference, being open to Learn about their prespective and using your experience with this group as a learning to Transfer to others. I am sure you that you are practicing SALT. I agree with Dr. JLL. I am not able to see a concrete way to measure SALT. I wish to share my experience. Once I was questioned by my director, how can you stay calm in a situaition where people completely disagree with you and when you are not in agreement with what they do or say. I replied that I believe that people have a valid reason to believe, to do or to say things is a particular way I cannot dismiss them just because I do not agree with it. They also have valid reasons based on their experiences as I have. Having said this I became very concious and i often check whether or to what degree I practice this. According to me i feel constantly checking oneself of these aspects in a good way of measuring.

With warm regards,

Prabakar

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Well said Prabakar.

Regards,

Rituu

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

Maybe another thing to check, and that is to check for hypotheses one is making about people. On my "black board in my offfice I wrote: "Are you sure". Too often I have acted on the basis of unfounded hypotheses; I am trying to do better ...

[Zoengpari]

Hi Rebeka,
Greetings from Mizoram, which is a small state located in the north eastern corner of India bordered by Myanmar on the east and Bangladesh on the west. Practicing SALT is not an easy feat....you maybe aware that the concept was born with the Salvation Armys work with AIDS nearly 20 yrs ago... it has evolved into its present form going through the river of LIFE ..... all over the world......... I have been sailing in a small row boat on the river of life for nearly 17 yrs since the concept became our way of working .... we have had our share ups and downs as an NGO, personally as an individual and also the communities we have been working with have had theirs as well ............ but then thats the river of life.........so basically its all about change in ourselves first and then when it bears fruit sow the seeds.

warm regards
zoengpari

[Laurence Gilliot]

Hi Rebeka,

I would like to share with you about the work of the Norwegian Church Aid in Thailand. They launched 350 SALT teams all over the country, who use SALT when doing home visits. The programme manager at the time said that this really improved the quality of their work. They developped a self-asessment on SALT (see attached). You could use this (and adapt it) with the teams in Merauke. If you want to know more about the work of NCA: http://www.aidscompetence.org/content/news/news_april_2008/nca.htm

For me SALT really starts with myself. It always does. If I do not appreciate myself and I do not know how to stimulate myself in challenging situations I will not be able to do so with others. If I have prejudices against someone (and therefore I'm not SALTy) I try to reflect upon my own thoughts and try to soften my heart. I try to see why I have such a tough judgement. And softening that judgement towards others helps me to be more gentle with myself...
It is difficult to convince anyone of SALT. The best way for me is to be SALTy... people around me will be intrigued and will want to know more about it. A great way of transferring SALT is also to create an opportunity for people to experience it for themselves. Can you organise a SALT visit for your colleagues?

I totally agree with Jean-Louis that SALT can be measured with happiness. If I'm not happy, this is an indication that I was not SALTy with myself or others.

All the best,

Laurence

[Laurence Gilliot]

From Joseph Senesie from Sierra Leone (who is in the process of registering to this platform but has some technical problems)

Hi Rebeka! Congratulations for your progress so far. For you to reach your currently level that leads to your question is great. The learning afternoon you are implementing with your colleagues is one of the strategies in spreading AIDS Competence. Also, sharing your experience in situations where the competence process could be applied is another. Your way of thinking is already positively affected as you seem to be applying SALT in your day-to-day practice. I hope my points will be of assistance and as a catalyst to keep you moving. If you are in an organization, you can introduce AIDS Competence to them.

Joseph Senesie

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Rebeka,

Your passion and initiative is inspiring. Please can you hop on to Delhi for a while.

NGO Ashodhya Mahila Samiti, Mysore, South India works primarily with sex workers. My colleagues from the NGO began their journey of ACP by introducing it among their co-workers. This was followed by a workshop for peer educators who were explained the priniciples of ACP and Self assessment was conducted among them. The NGO was to introduce it among the Sex worker communities but as most of the sex workers are non-brothel based the NGO was not finding it easy to get them together.

Best regards,

Rituu