News
DRC, Child Survival Competence – In Manono, Community Life Competence increases in Polio 3 immunisations by 50%
News from the Community Management of Child Survival (GCSE) project that has started early August 2012 in the provinces of Katanga and of the two Kasai: The number of third doses of polio vaccine administered by the Health Zone of Manono, in Katanga, has increased by 50% within the quarter in which RDCCompétence started its intervention. Congratulations to the WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), to UNICEF, to RDCCompétence and to the community of Manono!
In September 2012, Judith Dialunda has shared on Ning two stories about the facilitation and the community response in the context of this project (in French): “The SALT approach is a new way to understand, interpret and simplify your life” and “Actions that show community ownership of the management of full immunization”.
UGANDA, Intergeneration Compétence – Creating conversations in Entebbe
Members of the Health Nest Uganda organisation based in Entebbe have realised that they were “leaving out important link on issues of older persons – young people.” Since then, they have organized essay contests to allow young people to express their views on issues concerning the elderly. You can read one of these essays on Ning. Health Nest Uganda has also brought together the elderly and young people around the issue of income-generating activities. “Older persons felt included, enhanced their self-esteem and the young appreciated the old as still useful,” writes Arthur Namara, facilitator of the Community Life Competence Process (CLCP) and founder of Health Nest Uganda.
Arthur Namara joined a group who has the project of creating a forum for news and conversation about intergenerational relationships and the changes they bring. More about this group in Michelle Strutzenberger’s blog.
BELGIUM – Four very different communities travelled together
"By moving forward together, we can see where we are going," found members of four very different communities walking the path of Community Life Competence in Kraainem, Brussels, March 1st to 3rd:
- The Centre de Santé du Miroir wishes to give more autonomy to its patients, residents of Les Marolles in Brussels;
- Liboso, an association of three health centres, has a plan of action with health centres in Kinshasa;
- A company who intends to respond to the following challenge: "People make a good living, but are not happy anymore;"
- the NGO Guinea Competence that aims to bring together in an association all Guineans facilitators to extend Community Life Competence throughout the country.
The report of this weekend of sharing is available in the group Belcompétence of Ning (in French). It covers the different steps of CLCP. Here are some excerpts:
“Theory is when you know everything and nothing works. Practice is when everything goes well, but you do not know why.”
“In the “Who are we?” exercise, humour is important. The more people are at ease and feel that they can laugh, the more you erase differences.”
“It is not easy to explain to a group what ‘practice’ means. The word ‘practice’ is not clear.” “Describe what you do in 20 years.” “It's hard to stay in the dream; we end up by putting ourselves barriers.”
“The most successful facilitations are those where we share our own experience. For example, Gaston shared about the day he had to get tested for HIV with a group of Papuans. Astonishment: “So white people are afraid too?” ”
“Ask people to translate in their own language what has been explained and see if they have understood. If they use a word in French or English, they have not made their own the concept behind the word.”
You can also find in the report an illustration of each step, particularly of the steps "Who are we?" (p.5), the choice of indicator to measure practices (p.31) and sharing experience to build knowledge assets (p. 41), as well as ways to answer practical questions such as "What are ways to encourage silent people to express themselves?" (p.27)
GUINEA – The vision of Guinea Competence
The vision of Guinea Competence is to group facilitators in a non-profit organization to spread Community competence in the whole country. The objectives of the team are, among others:
- Organize training and awareness campaigns, information and education to strengthen the knowledge and skills of communities in the prevention of diseases, especially malaria, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, etc., and Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS);
- Train communities to be responsible for activities to improve their living conditions in general through CLCP;
- Develop activities to improve access to health care, education and better living conditions for local communities;
- Supporting communities in the formulation of development projects and in resource mobilization to implement these projects;
- Develop advocacy with decision makers (government, support agencies, community leaders, etc.) for a better understanding and taking into account issues of community development.
THE NETHERLANDS – A first taste of SALT for Dutch Competence
Maartje Rooker shares the participants' reactions to the introduction to SALT and the first step: "Who are we?" of CLCP that took place on 8 March in Amsterdam. Read Maartje’s blog.
INDIA, AIDS Competence – Uncle Huolai encourages leaders to think again
Rituu B. Nanda shares on our online network, Ning, a story of change of attitude towards people living with HIV in the village of Molvum, in Nagaland, Northeastern India. This story emphasizes the importance of leadership in change: from discrimination to inclusion and transfer, through home visits and by engaging support of leaders. Read Rituu B. Nanda’s blog.
INDONESIA – Another story of Appreciation
Chandra Nurhasz offers us a story which has the air of a tale. It takes place in the palace of Tayan. “When people feel respected and appreciated, then she/he will do good things we do not expect before. Both people who appreciate and who are appreciated will get good things.” Read Chandra’s story.
GLOBAL – “A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell Just as Sweet” W. Shakespeare
From a blog to another, from a country to another, from an approach to another, from a story to another, Susan Koshy takes us on a journey…
In Australia, she has interviewed Chris Bennett and Sue James. They tell us about their work, about the role of Appreciative Inquiry in their work, and the complementarity between Appreciative Inquiry and Tai Chi. “We are engaging people in a conversation that really matters to them about, initially anyway, the most positive, joyous and memorable experience around whatever we’re talking about and I think that it is such a relief. I get the impression that the world organisations works are hungry for those conversations because, for so many years, we’ve focused upon what is wrong, what needs to be fixed (…). In communities we talk about gap analysis (...) and communities are tired of being analysed. The hope approach focus gives people the sense that there is something that we can do. (…) We might not change the world, we might not change everything, but there are things we can dream and co-create together,” says Sue in the video.
In Singapore, Susan has interviewed Gerard Ee Huck LIan, Christina E. Joy and Cheryl Lek of Beyond Social Services. “We cannot fill all the gaps with professional services. That’s why we need the community,” says Gerard. “We hope to engage all volunteers as part of the community rather that external people who view themselves as coming to provide a service or as helpers in a giving kind of relationship,” adds Cheryl. “If people begin to see that they have the solutions, living will be more communal and, at the end of the day, children are looked after by the community,” concludes Chris.
In the Lion City, Susan has also met Jason Ng and Hosea Lai who work for the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) with the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach.
Here’s Susan’s conclusion: “And I sigh with a satisfied feeling that no matter what we call it, our motive is the Positive and Strength-based Approach for a better community, a better society and a better tomorrow.”
GLOBAL – Intergeneration platform
The idea of a news platform telling stories of the older and the younger generations co-creating futures is supported by Axiom News and representatives from World Café, the Appreciative Inquiry community, Taos Institute, Generations United and Communities for All Ages at Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning and The Constellation, organizations and communities with aligning perspectives and missions. More information in Michelle Strutzenberger’s blog.
Requests for help and contributions
What is the essence of the Constellation? What attracted you to our community? “Feel the essence of the Constellation,” as Sanghamitra Iyengar writes, as you are reading the replies of members of the Constellation to Jean-Louis Lamboray’s questions. Please share yours!
As facilitators, how do we frame Dream Building around a broad set of issues? Ideas? Experiences? Please share in Olivia Munoru’s discussion!
This request has triggered a discussion between Olivia Munoru and Jean-Louis Lamboray around the question of working with organisations that decide on the behalf of the people. Olivia uses every opportunity to share our approach and model SALT. Behold, “experts”! Olivia is ready to take you “on a journey to becoming facilitators".
Transferring our approach
Rituu B. Nanda has facilitated a session on strength-based approach and evaluation with international students of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) in Delhi, India. She shared in her blog on Ning how she presented strength-based approaches, Community Life Competence, The Constellation and SALT. For more details, please read Rituu B. Nanda’s blog.
4.000 copies of Jean-Louis Lamboray’s book « Qu'est-ce qui nous rend humains? » will be printed in French 9th April 2013. You want one or a dozen? Don’t wait to pre-order them! Contact Marlou De Rouw for more information.
What else is happening in The Constellation?
Jean-Louis Lamboray cites five cases in which it considers that applying SALT requires courage. And, at the request of Rituu, he explains how he thinks that we should respond to a negative attitude. For Laurence Gilliot, the first step is understanding. Nathalie Legros adds that it is also a matter of listening. Joy Ferriols-Pavico salutes the courage of facilitators who introduced the process of competence in her country, the Philippines.
Rituu B. Nanda has posted in the Gender Competence Group of Ning a guide for medical providers to address and respond to the unique needs and rights of children and adolescents who have experienced sexual violence and exploitation.
Also in the Gender Competence Group, Laurence Gillot has posted a link to the trailer of a movie about transgender in Asia.
In the Protestant experience on AIDS group, Annick Peeters invites you to share your experience of SALT visits and the changes they bring. The quarterly newsletter of Solidarité Protestante is available on their site.
Jan Somers has posted a picture that illustrates Jan’s vision of the Constellation.
Soledad Muniz has posted a video about Participatory Video, the tool used by InsightShare “to enable various groups and communities to tell their own stories in their own words”. More information on Soledad’s blog.
Upcoming events
Dutch Competence organises a three days learning event from 12 to 14 April 2013 in Amsterdam to discover the potential of CLCP in the Netherlands. For more information contact Marlou de Rouw, derouwm@gmail.com.
Join us!
You can join us at any event, as well as the events of the national facilitation teams. Please contact Marlou de Rouw at derouwm[@]gmail.com.
