Cambodian Inspiration Leads to a Global Model of Collaboration

I am sitting in a hot dilapidated meeting room with our local team right now in Cambodia. I am listening to the amazing hopes and plans that they have committed themselves to, in order to see the vision of collaboration and working together become a reality. I can also see their passion for partnership and how critical it is to addressing trafficking and abuse.  These young Cambodians are setting an example for the rest of us right now, and here is why...

Most NGOs in Cambodia (as well as in other developing nations, no doubt) are used to being the recipients of external assistance in the form of monetary aid, foreign experts as well as in program frameworks and development theories from ‘westerners’ and other developed nations. 

Of course, these elements have assisted Cambodian society move on from its post-civil war environment and have helped established both frameworks and infrastructure for many aspects of the nation’s growth. However, the result of this has been two-fold in brief: those bringing to Cambodia, although with good intentions, develop a sense of entitlement and superiority with little true accountability and collaboration with others. Secondly, Cambodians are now saying that they are through with being regarded as a ‘victim’ nation, viewed as having little capability to become responsible for the future of their society.

This makes the scaling up of a locally ran coalition to a global learning community, even more than just a replication of a successful model.

It means that Cambodians are now innovators. When they export their grassroots practice of collaboration to the developed world, it empowers and encourages their national population to see themselves as more than just recipients and more as contributing counterparts within the international anti-human trafficking movement.

Sometimes I wonder if I am too optimistic in thinking that we can make a difference through partnership, even though I have been committed to this for more than ten years. But as I listen to our team, I believe the dream is still alive and worth pursuing.

One hopeful pilgrim....