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Vladimir Shaporenko
is a development
consultant with thirty two years of experience
in international project development. He served
with various NGOs, as well as with the General
Board of Global Ministries of the United
Methodist Church as an Executive Secretary for
North Africa, Middle East, Europe and Central
Asia.
Mission Journal
11
project. The local participants strug-
gled, unable to handle the work. The
team hired a contractor, essentially
bypassing the local folks. Yes, the work
was done; however, this approach
stifled the local initiative. The next year,
people were waiting for Americans to
come and do it for the magain.
Therefore, it's essential to work in
close partnership with local people. As
their efforts get stronger, then the
mission team and their partners move
up to more challenging projects. Let
the emerging community lead the
process and use the funds raised as a
development tool, rather than as
humanitarian aid.
Another mission team leader, a
retired corporate executive, split his
exploratory team into four sub-groups
and requested local folks to arrange
three site visits or meetings a day for
each. Given these complex instructions,
the efforts failed and both sides of the
partnership got frustrated. Often, a
slow conversation around a cup of
coffee or tea would bring more results
than days of travel.
Setting up a new partnership can be
time-consuming. However, once a
genuine relationship is in place, the rest
is a truly rewarding and inspirational
experience. Ms. Hee Jin Park, a former
Global Ministries missionary in Central
Asia, knows this from her own experi-
ence. Making friends and building
relationships of trust, reliance on local
community expertise and guidance has
always been her style of ministry. The
result is a self-sufficient community
center that she has helped establish in
Ushtobe, Kazakhstan. The local
community members are proud of the
center and feel that it represents their
mutual accomplishment.
A few words about value of mone-
tary gifts. There are many examples of
gifts delivering miserable results. As we
know, good intentions are not merely
enough to produce the result we would
like to achieve. True partnerships are
based on the foundation of mutual
struggle and steady building of trusting
relationships. It is not unusual for an
international project to fail due to too
much money and too little of presence
and encouragement. The success of
your project depends on building a
transparent system that involves local
community leaders who represent
various groups and organizations,
possibly governmental agencies. They
all sit around the table and jointly make
key financial decisions. This participa-
tory system will empower them to
initiate and successfully carry out
future projects, long after your team
leaves the area.
Successful mission partnership is
both spiritual and practical. Partners
need some time to get to know each
other. And even after that, there will be
some gaps in knowledge about each
other. This partnership is usually a long
term relationship that requires putting
in place a number of key components,
such as assessment of resources and
priorities, team members strengths,
identifying potential partners and
formulation of partnership goals. Both
sides need to decide how often they
will communicate and through what
medium, how payments will be
executed. The partnership needs to be
a rewarding experience for all sides
involved to be successful. These and
other components will often require a
fact finding trip. Finally, both sides need
to agree on how they will evaluate the
results and what will constitute the
success.
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