Partnership
Show me that you love me / Show me that you walk with me
So goes the simple, yet poignant chorus of John Legend’s song “Show Me,” upon which his charitable campaign of the same name is based.
With years of experience in GlobeMed, an organization that emphasizes utilizing the partnership model to create sustainable change in communities, I am all about "walking with" people.
You see, NGOs doing development work usually use a top-down approach; “here’s what we think the problem is, here’s how we think it would best be fixed, and here’s what you need to do to help us get this done for you.” Such an approach belittles the people supposed to be benefiting from the charitable work. It reduces them to a recipient in the interaction; they are merely reacting to the changes being brought to them instead of playing an active part in re-shaping their own future.
GlobeMed at UMKC's partnership with Kyetume CBHCP (community based health care programme), is based on mutual respect, where both parties have a lot to learn from each other. Below you can see (from left to right) one of my fellow interns; Joy, one of the Kyetume staff, who is teaching us about the programs that she runs; and me.
While talking with Joy, we learned a lot about Kyetume's work with youth in the community, and the way they target especially troubled or poor youth by giving them resources to lift themselves out of poverty (vocational training, livestock, farming skills, school fees, etc.), and the approaches that work for this particular community.
One particular statement Joy made, when describing the mentality her programs try to instill in the youth, really struck a chord with me:
I have worth, I have value, so no one should step on me!
Much in the same way that Joy works directly with the youth to empower them to change their futures, GlobeMed's partnership with Kyetume aims to bolster Kyetume's ability to impact their community and reach a higher potential as an organization.
Our project this year will involve expanding Kyetume's reach to a remote community, Kyakuterekera in Kibaale district of Uganda, by building a health center there. Below you can see local government officials, the GlobeMed interns, and community members celebrating as the ribbon is being cut on the grounds of the future facility.
As part of our partnership, GlobeMed at UMKC and Kyetume CBHCP are working on this together, as equals. We are not donating money and just backing away from there. We are in the trenches with them, to see the outcomes through and ensure that actual change is brought to the community needing it. Instead of walking in front of them, we are walking with them.
--Isha