LISTEN BEFORE YOU ACT

One of the things I have learned through community work is that it is very easy to arrive with an answer before you have properly understood the question.

Project Aasha made me think more carefully about that.

The work looked beyond individual relief activities and tried to understand communities more systematically through research, engagement and practical support.

We spent time trying to understand what people actually needed before deciding what should happen next.

That sounds obvious, but in a crisis it is surprisingly easy to skip that step.

The experience reinforced something I now try to carry into every initiative: the people experiencing a problem usually understand parts of that problem better than anyone arriving from outside.

When you listen first, the response becomes more grounded.

You are not simply delivering what you have.

You are trying to solve the problem that is actually there.