Storytelling

Challenge:  I work in an NGO in Bangladesh that works for the homeless and impoverished  people of the country. In the wake of the recent events, the Rohingya refugee crisis in  Bangladesh, our organisation was tasked by the UNHCR with making the refugees acquainted  and comfortable with the rehabilitation process so that the can return as soon as the violence  settles down in Myanmar and it becomes safe for the to return. Most of the refugees were  pretty reluctant to move back to their country in fear of persecution. It was our job to  overcome this challenge.

Selection: Empathy between client and service provider is one of the fundamental qualities of  design thinking. In conditions as delicate as this empathy is a must for building connection with  the client. Storytelling is a great tool that lets the service provider and clients connect  emotionally as it puts the human beings and the stories front and centre thus taking the  listener along the journey. Most of our clients were refugees whose lives were scarred by the  inhuman persecution of the Burmese army. To help them open up and share  concerns I chose  storytelling tool as it seemed the only tool capable of overcoming the challenge.

Application: When I started working with the refugees I really wanted to connect with them. I  wanted to put myself in their shoes so that I could asses their emotional state effectively.  Nothing brings people together more than stories. It gives people a sense of purpose. For them  to open up I shared a story of my grandparents with them. During the Liberation war of  Bangladesh my grandparents along with my father fled to India to seek refugee and save  themselves from the persecution of Pakistani army. While staying in the refugee camp they  realized that they can not stay in the camps for long. Though how hard it may be they must  return to their country or else they will never have a land to call their own, they will never have  the basic human rights, their children will never receive proper education ultimately they will  fall behind in the race of life. So when the war ended they returned to Bangladesh and started  the work of rebuilding a war torn nation. Hearing my story they finally began to open up and  tell us the stories of thei lives and the horrors that they have faced. They started to voice their  concerns and conditions of their rehabilitation. Which made it easy for the diplomats to carry  out the discussions of the rehabilitation policy with the foreign officials of Myanmar. I could  sense that they were slowly warming upto the idea of returning to Myanmar.

Insight & Approach:  When I finished telling my story they began to understand  how much  they and their children are missing out in life by being stuck in a refugee camp. They realized  that for the sake of their future generations they must return to their lands and start rebuilding

it. Though it was a lengthy process I could finally see some changes of mind among the refugee  which many deemed impossible. Thus storytelling accomplished a task which many  conventional methods failed to do.

I used storytelling without even knowing anything about this tool. After this course I think I'll be  able to use this tool more effectively.

