Reflection – Storytelling

As part of team engaged with rural communities in Africa one of the major challenge we face is getting  the trust of our host community to enable us be effective in engaging them and proffering solutions to  pending issues.

I have found out that one way of gaining trust and engagement from the people is if we are able to  relate to them on their level and help them see that we are not invincible and we also face similar  challenges like they do.

One way of doing this is through storytelling. It creates an image in their minds and brings what we are  trying to convey to them.

Application

One area where the ability to tell a story really came in handy in gaining the trust of our host community  was when there was an outbreak of cholera in the community and they were refusing to take the drugs  we brought. They obviously did not trust us and our drugs.

Apparently, we were not the first group to bring them “solutions”. It was my duty to address them and  assure them that we have their best interest at heart. To make them understand our points we  performed a short play, the play depicted a striving community who was almost wiped out of existence  because of a deadly “bandit”. This bandit was so powerful that anyone he came in contact started to  shake, throw up and poo on themselves out of fear even after the bandit has left and the only way to  help the person is through the help of a benevolent man who through his innate kindness and care will  reduce the affliction”.

After the play, we had some people take the drug. After that, more people came to take the drug once  they saw the effects on their neighbors, friends and family.

Insight and Approach

Having this knowledge has made it easier to navigate other communities. It is easier to get to them  because we have an effective way of addressing their problems as we design solutions specific to each  community and the ability to present these solutions in the way they would understand is truly  priceless.

This course has helped me to improve on this valuable skill and see it for the great asset it is. It is not  enough to design solutions but the ability to bring these solutions to life before the target audience is  key.

