Story Telling – more than a fashion

When you’ve been lucky enough to see story telling tools in action, moving beyond emotional reactions and instigating a change in beliefs, knowledge and practices you’re certainly motivated to take a few risks and try these approaches out in the most traditional and resistant of settings, whether in the board room of a multinational chemicals company, an international conference touching on the taboos of birth control and sexual reproductive health rights or, as in my first “formal experience” engaging with child soldiers in Liberia. In first crafting and then relating their “stories” these young men and women were enabled to share experiences with each other, build individual and collective narratives, gain confidence in an altered and more positive journey forward and, in the best of scenarios, communicate to wider group of key stakeholders.

Northern rural Liberia is hot, humid and heavy with a history of violence, conflict and poverty. Sitting on the mud floor for hours and witnessing the emotional investment and risk taking of these young people, their struggles, fears, resistance to change alongside a deep resilience was truly inspiring.