A note from Richard Manning MD
Chief Executive Officer
Be Team International
When people first hear “Be Team International,” I understand the pause. It isn’t a name that explains everything we do at a glance, especially when the work itself is so practical and so serious. But the name matters, because it points to the posture behind the work.
I chose “Be Team” as an invitation to partnership. In Afghanistan, and in healthcare, lasting progress doesn’t come from outsiders arriving with answers. It comes from trust, shared learning, and the steady commitment to show up — day after day — alongside the people who carry the work forward.
That’s why I simply never think of BTI as “our” achievement. The real leaders are Afghan clinicians and hospital teams who have chosen, in the face of immense complexity, to keep caring for women, children, and families with skill, courage, and professionalism. Our role is to come alongside as trusted colleagues — supporting training, strengthening readiness, and helping ensure teams have what they need to provide dependable care at our hospital in Kabul. This work is daily, steady, and often unseen. And it continues because people like you choose to stand with it.
THE VALUES BEHIND OUR NAME
Humility — I am always a guest, and always learning | Reconciliation — demonstrated by self-sacrifice | Professionalism — Good intentions are never enough in medicine. Competence, respect, and careful follow-through honor every patient and every colleague | Restoration — demonstrated by complete healing | Compassion — Expressed practically: the right supplies at the right time, equipment kept running, a training that strengthens not one clinician but every person they mentor next | Humanitarianism — demonstrated by cultural sensitivity | Cooperation — Partnership over control. Strengthening Afghan-led systems rather than building dependence | Enduring Partnerships — Staying present, staying consistent, and doing the unglamorous work of relationship over time
The “International” in our name isn’t about sounding large. It’s about what becomes possible when people on opposite sides of the world decide to stand together. Afghan colleagues lead and serve in Kabul every day — with skill, with courage, and with a quiet determination that humbles me. And people like you, choosing to stand with them across borders, make that work possible in ways that are more consequential than most of us ever get to be. That is Be Team International. And we hope you’ll be a part of it.