Trusting the Intangible

It’s been a practice of mine to leave flower seeds behind when I move from one house to another. I suppose it’s a small act of reciprocity, trust, leaving something for the next temporary stewards.

At TWP, I’ve come to realize how much the organizations we support are doing this every day, in the big ways. 

They are investing everything in outcomes they will never see, because they know it’s the right thing to do. 

We all need to learn to do the same. 

In May, 16 of these organizations gathered in Honduras, supported by the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), to share their experiences in TWP’s organizational strengthening program. The community-based groups who’ve participated have evaluated their organization’s strengths and weaknesses, built long-term strategic plans, and applied those plans within pilot projects. 

These outcomes are much less tangible than planting trees or building stoves. It’s hard to quantify what capacity building or strategic planning or knowledge exchanges “do.” 

But it’s never been more clear to me than in Honduras. When you see participants’ profound level of commitment, enthusiasm, and interest in learning from one another, there is no doubt that the insights of this gathering will change lives in places we may never go, in ways we may never see.

“Organization is the foundational pillar for our initiatives. We must consider who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Above all, this experience of mutual support has helped us to keep moving forward, ensuring that our initiatives remain strong, that they are not lost. And if we can combine this with the experiences of other organizations and those that will come in the future, it creates a vital chain of growth.” -Areli Castellanos, LIMAXTUM

Ultimately, strengthening local organizations means that ancestral forests will be protected, that displaced communities will rebuild their livelihoods, and that thousands of women will breathe clean air in their homes. And most of all, it means that these efforts can be sustained beyond the lives of the individuals who began them. 

As one of our participants said, “we don’t leave projects, we leave equipped people.”

To me, that’s the difference between leaving one beautiful flower, or leaving seeds for hundreds more beneath the soil.