Partners as Trees

Q: What do you do?
A: I work at a human-rights organization.
Q: What kind of human rights?
A: Well, it's pretty broad...

Often, when I try and give a three-minute "elevator speech" on the content of our work here at UUSC, I end up stymied. And it's not because I'm detached from the work of our human-rights organization. It's because human-rights work is complex, UUSC's approach is unique, and our scope is broad. Even our partnership model, which we call an "eye-to-eye partnership" model, is different from most organizations'. We drop our agendas, listen to our partners, and do our best to respond to their needs.

And when it comes to our partners, no two are alike. We work with women's unions in Latin America, organizers in Northwest Arkansas, shrimp fishers in the Gulf Coast, and Imams in Darfur.

Recently, a colleague likened each partner to a different species of tree — and the analogy stuck with me.

Here is the thing about trees — they are all different. Each has its own strengths that nature helped to cultivate, and each fits its native environment in very specific ways. Trees adapt to their surroundings and live long, healthy lives. Trees have roots in the soil, their turf — and trees represent each landscape's uniqueness and quirks.

Take a mulberry sapling, for example. Mulberries grow quickly, sprouting up to provide sustenance in unlikely areas. The leaves of the mulberry can be turned into silk, making them useful financially.

If we were to describe one of our partners in Kenya, the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative, we might liken it to a mulberry sapling. When post-election violence swept through Kenya in January 2008, leaving between 400,000 to 600,000 people displaced, UUSC needed partners that could meet the challenge head-on, respond quickly, and help people meet their immediate needs.

Like a mulberry sapling, the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative could do all of that. Just as a mulberry sapling grows quickly, so did the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative. Just as mulberries provide sustenance, the initiative helped provide for the immediate needs of the community by distributing things like food and water. Just as the leaves of the mulberry sapling can be turned into silk, loans that the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative gave out are now being turned into long-term income-generating projects.

Another example is our partner in Myanmar, which defends the rights of people who are at risk of exploitation and abuse following last year's deadly cyclone. Our partner, whose name is withheld for security reasons, might be likened to a mangrove. A mangrove is common and blends into its environment. In a place like Myanmar, this attribute is crucial: humanitarian work is risky and challenging.

The mangrove is also indigenous to Myanmar, so, like our partner, it knows and understands the local politics at play and the different dynamics in the area.

Mangroves are interesting too in that they can defend unstable areas during a storm with the help of their massive underground network of roots, which makes them strong. Our partner's roots in Myanmar are like the mangrove's — without them, our partner would likely be unsuccessful in its attempts to protect those whom it aims to serve.

In Gaza, an olive tree might be the most likely metaphor for our partner. In a land of long-standing conflicts, no tree could be more emblematic than the olive tree. Extending the olive branch isn't just symbolic in Gaza, it also represents the beginning of change for the communities where UUSC has partnered with the American Friends Service Committee to develop youth leadership and practical aid.

The olive tree is indigenous to the area, a critical factor when choosing a partner in Gaza. By working with local youth, UUSC has chosen to work with those who are continually growing and producing, a quality that makes the olive tree prized. And like the youth whom we partner with, the olive tree is tenacious — it tolerates difficult situations and continues to grow and strengthen.

So in the end, it's not that our work and our partners are so complex, it's that, like the many qualities of trees, no three minutes of explaining could do them justice. It's their diversity and unique strengths that make our partnerships so effective.