SHARING

The exposure (encounter) is followed by a phase of reflection and dialogue that lasts between two and four days. The participants deepen their collective personal impressions and experiences through individual and joint reflection, in discussion with one another or with representatives of the participating self-help or partner organisations and with experienced local and international resource persons.

In the phase of reflection and dialogue the participants are able, based on the experience of the living reality of a poor family, to:

• learn about the mechanisms and rules that determine the role and the mission of self-help systems,
• understand the life strategies of the host family,
• understand the concepts and strategies of the self-help organisations that support these people,
• identify universally applicable factors for success from replicable self-help approaches with a structural impact,
• discover possibilities in their own field of impact for eradicating the causes of poverty and marginalisation.

Two guiding ideas define the reflection and the dialogue:

Development has got a face: The person-to-person encounter in the exposure and the platform which the dialogue creates belong together. These two aspects open up an opportunity for the two sides, the stakeholders and the political movers and shakers, to get closer to the goal of being able to experience the same reality. This can be the starting point for a process that offers alternative viewpoints which are both creative and free of pressure or manipulation.
The whole person becomes part of the process: The participants encounter a strange world. This opens up for them the possibility to reflect on the horizons of their own personal and professional experience. Bringing this background into the dialogue enriches the sharing. Each person perceives a situation in his or her own way. This is something to be discovered and accepted. The dialogue calls for openness and respect in order to be able to encounter the poor person as an individual and as the subject of his or her own development.