Teamwork is an important value for us. Not only do we partner with those overseas, we do so even more with local friends and relevant government officials. The crucial foundation for teamwork is mutual respect, allowing every person to use their strengths to thrive in their roles. No matter who we partner with, we must first understand what their needs are and what is important to them, and better yet, to genuinely appreciate and seek to understand them.

When partnering with local friends, it’s important to remember this: If we do not show them something by example, they may not know how to do it. However, the highest level of teaching is allowing them to learn how to draw the right conclusions through owned experience. This way, they will learn it themselves rather than achieve by merely following our suggestions.

We once held a Farmer Training Programme, and one of the topics was financial management. As this was not my area of expertise, I invited a financially supported university student to prepare the content for the class. At the same time, we also invited some high school agricultural interns, who happened to be present, to assist the farmers with the activities. Before the training session, we spent two days discussing the activities and course content. We also worked together to make props but did not write a detailed lesson plan.

After the training session, the university student came to realise that his profession could be meaningful while the high school students also gained a deeper understanding of the difficulties their parents faced as farmers. The farmers who attended were also surprisingly more open with their families about such challenges.

Meanwhile, my coworkers and I only needed to take photos and document the event. If we had been the ones teaching the farmers, we would have been spending time training the high school students and the university student would have just observed from the sidelines. Now, not only did the training programme achieve all of the above in one go, all the participants also gained greater confidence and a deeper understanding of what was going on in their community.

In the field, we often differentiate between the distinct roles we have. However, if we go beyond a project framework and think creatively, good things can come about when we integrate the different roles that different groups play. This is especially relevant in our current situation, in which there is inherent sensitivity to the presence of overseas personnel. If different teams can be utilised to play different roles effectively, then even if it seems like we are effectively taking a back seat, we are in reality accomplishing greater things while gaining much needed trust with the community.