What is the commonality between Taninahun and Wotton under Edge? The first is an idyllic small town nestled in the southern Cotswolds, while the second is a cluster of mud-brick huts covered in palm leaves or corrugated roofs located in the Barri Chiefdom in Sierra Leone. Rory’s Well is a charity that transforms modest funding into clean water and improved agriculture. It also offers low-cost loans, and produces fantastic honey.
TheHRDirector published an article by Dr Kath Curtis Hayward last year about the work done by Rory’s well. In November, I visited Taninahun as well as other villages within the Barri Chiefdom in order to gain an outsider perspective on progress, challenges and opportunities from an HR point-of-view. My top query was: How can partnership be achieved across the cultural and customary divides that separate places like Wotton under Edge and Taninahun. What does partnership mean when differences are so dominant?
This is not a hypothetical question. I’ve lost track of how many times the word partnership has been misused: suppliers, customers, sub-contractors and even employees have all been called ‘partners.’ These public relations campaigns are a way to hide the economic and political realities about who is in charge. What happens when the differences between two countries are too large to disguise?
We have wrestled with this question for more than 20 years. They had outlined the attributes of an effective partnership; I was reminded of these as we drove from Freetown, Sierra Leone’s chaotic capital city, to the east and onto the almost inaccessible track leading to Taninahun.
To create a successful partnership, it is important to first define what the word “partnership” means and what that entails for everyone involved. Then, you need to merge the differences. It may seem obvious, but many people have no idea what partnership means.
Rory’s well had no such problems, as I was relieved. Rory’s Well has a Memorandum of Understanding with its partner NGO, People’s Agenda for Development Sierra Leone. This outlines what both parties understand as partnership – an essential first step – and what each party will do individually and together to keep their partnership on track. Rory’s Well might raise and control a large amount of funding in cash, but it would be worthless without PAD-SL’s organisational skills and the dedication and enthusiasm of its team.
This includes their shared mission: that in five years, everyone in the operation area will have access to clean water throughout the year and that communities will achieve food security by using sustainable farming techniques and basic economic independence. There are no fanciful words in this statement. Second, it includes their values. Most importantly, the goal to build trust and relationships between the two organisations, the people they work with and the communities.
Was it the evidence I saw of real partnership, real collaboration? Did I see it when I spent hours with farmers in swamp farms, talking to them as they cut the rice? Listening to women’s groups discuss agroforestry or microfinance. Or riding motorbikes along jungle tracks rutted with mud, clinging to the engineers who maintain wells for their lives? This was not a holiday.
All of this and their willingness to be creative and think laterally was what I saw. For example, they used the same solar panels that power well pumps to charge mobiles. The beekeepers I accompanied on a trek into the rainforest in order to collect honeycombs were devoted. You haven’t experienced heat until you’ve waded through dense tropical undergrowth wearing a duvet-suit with stingproof overalls, a hood, and a veil. In the determination to develop new crops and techniques that challenge the traditional’slash-and-burn’ agricultural methods which contribute to climate change.
I am always convinced that a real partnership involves a willingness to accommodate both different and shared goals. It is important that partners can accommodate, and sometimes embrace, different priorities and interests. After all, many successful marriages do not depend on absolute togetherness. As long as there is a clear and transparent exchange of information, based on shared values and principles and a willingness to learn and listen to each other, the pursuit of different objectives and differences in approach to tasks are less important.
I found the most evidence of a true partnership in the staff and volunteer relationships between RW, PAD-SL and myself. The laughter and teasing was evident and indicated a genuine attachment and affection. The willingness to laugh with each other can reveal a lot. It was probably a vacation.
There are several things that you can do right away if this story is of interest to you.
You can first help Rory’s Well dig new wells by:
-
Digging a well for PS 3,000 and providing clean water to 750+ people
-
The PS150 allows the training of well maintenance teams consisting of two people from four villages.
-
PS40 can fix a broken pump.
If it remains broken, people will have to drink water from swamps and streams, which can cause diarrhoea and even hepatitis. )
Go to www.roryswell.org/donate.html
If you’re interested in partnerships, and think that your organization could help this project in some way, please contact us via our website www.roryswell.org, or simply forward this article to anyone who may be interested.
