Partnerships are an absolute key ingredient in making the work of Food For The Poor efficient and effective.
FFP is always seeking out new partnerships that will enable us to help more people in need. In the relief and development world, we are known as a “proactive facilitator,” as our Executive VP Alvaro Pereira described it to me last week.
One thing I genuinely admire about FFP is our commitment to working with others. By partnering with like-minded organizations, agencies, churches, communities and individuals (clergy, missionaries, laypeople and beneficiaries alike), we are leveraging the strengths and unique capabilities of everyone involved in order to maximize the benefit to the poor.
Consider the following examples:
We work with TOMS to distribute shoes to needy kids in Honduras and Jamaica, and with the European Union to grow fresh fruits and veggies for the poor in Jamaica.
Food For The Poor’s has had a longstanding partnership with the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund to develop tilapia farms, skills training and various agricultural initiatives in poor communities throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. The good folks from the Taiwan ICDF continue to provide invaluable training and expertise to ensure these projects provide steady sources of income and nutrition for people in need.
In partnership with FUNDESO, a Spain-based organization, we are working toward equipping schools in Central America with solar power.
In Haiti, we are working with partners like the Inter-American Development Bank, CARITAS, and FUNDESO toward providing housing for families in need of shelter.
These are just a few examples. There are thousands more tremendous in-country nonprofits and other partners we could highlight here like CEPUDO in Honduras, the Lutheran Church in Guatemala, or The American Nicaraguan Foundation; not to mention the incredible folks who run the nutritional clinics and hospitals we support.
We’ll avoid the rambling ‘so many people to thank’ Oscars speech here and just end with some scripture that I think explains our philosophy of collaboration pretty well. We’re just one part of a body that is made up of many parts, all working toward a common goal…
From Romans 12:
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…