TeamWorks 1.0
Development and Globalization (2001)
In autumn 2001, Matt Gerber beheld the events of 9/11 from a unique geographic vantage point:
the Middle East. Studying in Cairo, Egypt at the time, Matt became increasingly interested in
the topic of globalization. In summer of 2002, thanks to funding from the
Ford Family Foundation,
Matt set off to 15 countries in South and Central America to study the connection between
community development and globalization. He discovered the community programs that were most
successful (with the greatest long-term positive impact) had two commonalities: 1) they all put
an emphasis on understanding the people as individuals and building long-term relationships,
and 2) they created a deep sense of ownership within the people who the project was to benefit.
George Fox University Rotaract (2002)
Returning to the United States, Matt desired to participate in the global community on a daily
basis and he wanted to connect his peers with opportunities for service. His senior year, Matt
started the George Fox University
Rotaract Club.
Besides a host of local community service activities, the club’s international service projects
included delivering medical supplies for earthquake relief in central Colombia and educational
supplies to rural communities in Venezuela. Finding great success with these projects, the GFU
Rotaract Club took on a more ambitious endeavor to send a team of volunteers to a remote corner
of Nicaragua for a month of volunteering. Such a trip was no small feat for a group of full-time
college students, most of whom were about to graduate. Thanks to financial support from local
Rotary Clubs,
the Ford Family Foundation, and numerous private
donors, the group set off in the summer of 2003 to volunteer at a local orphanage, focusing on the
areas of public health, education, vocational training and social programs.
TeamNicaragua (2003)
What started out as that month-long service trip--known as TeamNicaragua--became so much more.
The group of university students who set out that summer to volunteer in Nicaragua believed that
the trip would be a single memorable event in their lives. The reality, however, is that upon
their return from that experience, they realized they had only scratched the surface of all that
could and needed to be done in that community.
TeamWorks 2.0
TeamNicaragua Continues (2004)
Although those original volunteers to Nicaragua were now graduated and no longer members of the
George Fox University
Rotaract Club,
the work of TeamNicaragua continued and began to take on a life of its own. The first trip of seven
students from one university turned into another trip with 18 students from across the United States.
Another trip quickly followed that was not just students but people from all walks of life spanning
15 to 64 years of age. At this same time, relationships began to form with other communities within
Nicaragua: Somotillo in western Nicaragua and the remote village of Krin Krin on the Rio Coco. All
of the work of the volunteers was structured with a holistic approach (addressing the community as a
whole instead of just one part) and proving quite successful. The projects were based on forming
genuine relationships between individuals and creating a sense of ownership within the people in the
communities being served.
It became quickly apparent in the spring of 2004 that TeamNicaragua, with its volunteers committed to
long-term community development, had become its own organization. Furthermore, opportunities for
similar work were opening up in other countries as well. As the possibility of expanding programs
into Africa and Asia began to look more and more likely, one of the original Nicaragua group
participants, Ben McReynolds, coined the name TeamWorks International. As a board of directors was
assembled, 4Rivers Healthcare, a nonprofit organization in Ontario, Oregon, provided fiscal
sponsorship so that TeamWorks could operate as a tax-deductible entity until it acquired its own
status. In late 2004, Ann Mansfield and Jeannie Litchfield, both from Oregon, quit their jobs to
move to Nicaragua to live and work full-time through TeamWorks International.
TeamWorks 3.0
TeamWorks International is officially born (2005-)
In spring of 2005, TeamWorks International officially incorporated and by summer had its own 501(c)3
nonprofit organization status. By late summer, in additional to on-going programs in Nicaragua,
TeamWorks sent a team to tsunami-impacted regions of India to explore possibilities of partnership
in long-term community development programs. Five individuals are now preparing to move to India
in summer 2006, with specific emphasis on public health, education and economic development. Also
summer 2006, TeamWorks is sending its first time to Africa to begin projects focusing on children
orphaned by the AIDS pandemic. Members of TeamWorks are also exploring opportunities for community
development partnerships in Nepal and Bolivia.
The heart of TeamWorks International is simply this: to build relationship through service. It is
our purpose that these partnerships in service will substantially improve the living conditions for
individuals throughout our global community.