Over the last few years we have been partnering with various organisations to set up and run after school centres. Sthree Jagriti Samiti, DBRC and now Sangama are partner organisations who bring expertise in working in communities while we are able to bring ideas in the realm of learning and education. These partnerships have been quite successful but often I find myself feeling very anxious particularly when there are some differences. Now that we've partnered with our third organisation what I've realised is that differences are only natural and there is no such thing as a perfect alignment. As long as there are some shared values and a common goal collaborations are possible. It's also important to remember that different collaborations can be different and there is no fixed template or structure for these particularly at the early stages. I've also found it uncomfortable when I don't know who has a say in what regard but in each of these collaborations shared decision making has what has enabled success. When there is a mutual trust between the organisations, co-creation and bringing each of our strengths to the collaboration is what enables us to thrive. I'm sure we'll learn more about collaborating in the future but right now accepting that there is always compromise and different ideas in co-operation has been crucial to my journey.