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| Community Development Is All About Partnership | | Print | |
by Julian Doorey
 It was with great satisfaction that I rode out of the compound on the back of a new shiny red Hero Honda 100 motorbike. It is one of 3 paid for by NZ Baptists (20%) and the NZ government (80%) joint funding for the project. Thirty minutes later as I walked across the rickety old (non-OSH compliant) bridge into Uttor Balia (one of the 12 project villages) I was expecting the usual village scene – bamboo or tin huts, a dusty courtyard and poverty. Well I saw all that, but so much more... There amongst the village houses was the first ‘model’ TCDC village centre - plastered brick, concrete floor and tin roof. An ideal multi-roomed facility for the pre-school, child coaching classes and adult self-help groups. Included was a staff house - 2 rooms, bathroom and inside toilet. And the most amazing thing – an environmentally friendly improved-wood-fuel ‘cooking stove’ - much talked about ‘appropriate technology’ but seldom seen. Currently another 6 centres are nearing completion. These facilities will enable Baptist Aid to impact the host villages with good development (and positive relationships) for decades to come - long after BANZAid has ceased formal funding of this project.
Of course there’s another partner. When I asked the husband and wife staff teams in each of the 3 villages that I visited ‘How is God involved in this work?’, their answers were remarkably similar: ‘When we serve the poor, God is in this... The wider community and our close neighbours are watching us – our speech, our actions, our work, our lives... At first some of our non-Christian neighbours or local religious leaders were suspicious but now they are learning to trust us and appreciate our work.’ One pre-school class containing 19 Muslims and just 1 Christian child supported their answers.
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In July I spent a few days on the old Chandpur mission compound with grass, trees, birds and ponds. It’s good for the soul to get out of Dhaka, a noisy, polluted concrete jungle. The compound is now also home to the 
It really hit home, our Bangladeshi partner Baptist Aid is doing all this, not foreigners, certainly not me. There are 47 local Bangladeshi staff working in this project. No foreigner is directly involved in day to day leadership, governance or management of the project. My role as BANZAid Bangladesh is to give assistance with project training, monitoring and reporting... one person with a laptop!
Based on my observations it seems this partnership thing actually does work. Social scientists tell us that when groups of individuals work in a participatory and empowering way together, all heading in the same direction – the result is ‘common-unity’ also known as ‘community’. A better future becomes possible, not as competitive individuals but as cooperating communities. The overall result is much bigger than the sum of the individual inputs. This is partnership leverage. It’s also partnership blessing. Jesus reminded us in the ‘Parable of the Sower’, that when we partner in God’s work, we can expect a harvest of justice and righteousness yielding thirty, sixty and hundred times (Matt 13, Mark 4, Luke 8)... Surely that’s the Kingdom harvest we all want.
Will you 
Chandpur TCDC Project Year Two Report
Julian Doorey's Story