Team Peru

Maintaining any relationship is challenging. Team Peru and the AASD emphasize collaboration and harnessing collective intelligence. The District government that we work with in Peru has a much different culture than our team, but over the past year we have established a valuable relationship that is changing the way we see development, while simultaneously changing how the government views NGOs.

We have a formal agreement with the district of Lares where we work. Under this agreement, we split the costs of the greenhouse construction. At the beginning it was difficult to get the government to comply with our agreement.  It seemed like our project was not a big priority for them. As the months went on and the project progressed our relationship improved and, I think, the government started to see a unique value in our relationship.

I know every man and women in the government offices. They all know our organization and exactly what we do. They see Ruben and myself every week; we show up on public transportation and we get to the communities, both of us riding on Ruben’s motorcycle. The government sees how we work and is well aware that we do not have a large budget to work with. Although we cannot  commit much money, it is obvious that we are committing a great deal of time and energy to these few projects. They do not see us as a link into the normal development chain of large budgets, nor do they see an opportunity to bring money into the district to solidify future elections.  So what do they see?

The local government has cooperated very well with us and has dedicated a lot of resources to help the projects. I think they do this because they recognize a different kind of opportunity besides big development funds. They see flourishing greenhouses and yields they didn’t think were possible. They see an organization that works in schools but also participates in community events and sponsors local soccer teams. They see a partner and a friend, not a money sign. ~Aaron