"In April 2006, the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) embarked on a three-year journey in peer to peer mentoring. Through Project SjCOOP (Science journalism COOPeration), 16 experienced science journalists from 15 African, Arab, European and North American countries became companions to sixty of their colleagues in 33 African and Arab countries for two years. It was essentially a mentoring project at a distance, across multiple cultures, across countries and continents. The SjCOOP project led to the creation of seven associations of science journalists and made African and Arab science journalists true partners in the international community of science journalism. In this guidebook, Kathryn O’Hara, who gave the initial training in mentoring to the SjCOOP mentors, shares the lessons learned in the mentoring process and looks into the complex mentor-mentee relationship which is always full of surprises." (Foreword, page 3)