Reading for Module 2
Module 2: Who are we?
Gaston shares his sense of belonging to a community and describes how his community behaves together and allows it to respond to an issue: “I belong to a strong community in Chiang Mai. My group of friends support and care for each other and the community tries sincerely to accept everybody. New people are given a warm welcome which causes many people to stay in Chiang Mai for much longer than they plan. They simply feel at home after they join our community. The welcome is characterized by a sincere acceptance of who you are and creating an environment to share and learn.”
Extract from the blog: “Are we objects or subjects of development?”: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/are-we-objects-or-subjects-of
Your role, as facilitator, is to create this space by sharing and transferring the SALT spirit to the community and accompanying the expression and recognition of strengths within the community.
Jean-Louis’ story shows that it is important to connect at a human level: “Ruhaha, Rwanda, July 2010.
We had come to visit Ruhaha, a Rwandan community close to the border with Burundi. We were from the 6 GLIA countries (The Great Lakes Initiative on AIDS: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) and Europe. When we came into the meeting room, we declined to sit down at the ‘high table’ and instead placed ourselves at random within the community that was welcoming us. Bosco, who was facilitating the visit, asked us all to turn to our neighbour and to embrace each other. This set off a joyful set of warm exchanges!
A lady from the community spoke up at the end of the meeting, "By your attitude, you have put an end to discrimination in our community. How can we now discriminate within our own community when you have showed that we are all equal?”
We, who work in the struggle against AIDS have a large role to play in the battle against exclusion. Let us set an example.
Once we can see each other as equal human beings, we find common ground and we are able to share. And when we look for strengths we know that the stories will come that will inspire us and will lead us to apply what we learn in our own context.
You can read Jean-Louis blog on Ning (in French) at:
http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/inclusion-montrons-lexemple
You can also read another blog that describes the same visit (in English) at:
http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-giftof-hugs-and-many
After you have experienced your first SALT visit, we will invite you to reflect on the experience and try to understand to learn from it.
In this blog, Autry Haynes discusses the relevance of stimulating a discussion around the question “Are we human?” “The relevance of why we are human”
Community conversation is key for communities to take ownership and being responsible. This is local response. When we seek to stimulate local response with community conversation, one of the stimulating question is “Are we human?” and “Why?” Members of every community are intrigued by the question and their own response. They agree to continue 'community conversations' on that human level.
The Mauritius Council for Social Services (MACOSS) shared in this experience when it held an empowerment session for leaders working in the 'disability' sector. There was the invitation to introduce SALT as a tool by which the sector can stimulate conversation on issues / concerns that lead to amicable resolution. There were more than 50 participants. In two hours we were able to engage three SALT activities. 1. SALT a Way of Thinking and Way of Working; 2. Are we human and why? 3. Envisioning.
To engage a candid discussion on 'humanness' it was decided that to get meaningful engagement the participants do so in small groups. In ten minutes discourse we derived more productivity with small groups than with the larger group. There was no significant difference between group's description of why are we human.What stood out was that the participants do not necessarily know each other. As one participant stated "We do not know each other, but it does not make any difference in the groups."
Some other reflections included:
We speak to each other on a human level.
We see each other as a fellow human being.
We understand each other.
We respect the opinion of each other.
We express our own but also different opinions.
We have a passion for God.
We give opportunity for others to say what they would like to say.
There was a passion for godliness.
The overall reflection was that "We now have a dream. We cannot leave that just like that. We need to continue this SALT as a way forward."
MACOSS agreed to engage the same partners to continue the discussion on how can we achieve our dream that was achieved from the envisioning session.
Here is the link to the blog: http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-relevance-of-why-we-are-human