Girls Empowered Stories of Change - Digital Storytelling Project

The three organisations in Malawi and Rwanda were selected and supported by Firelight based on their rootedness in the communities they served and their understanding and insight into the challenges facing girls in their community. Programming for girls included vocational training, business management training, financial literacy, sexual reproductive health and life skills education, legal services, and advocacy skills. The organisations also trained girls on group dynamics, conflict management, and leadership skills. Each of the organisations also benefited from ongoing support from Firelight Foundation to strengthen their organisational management and develop girl-centred programming.

The three partners were (click on the name of each organisation for more information on each overall project):

• Action pour le Developpement du Peuple (ADEPE) in Rwanda
• Association Tuvuge Twiyubaka (Tuvuge) in Rwanda
• Nkhotakota AIDS Support Organization (NASO) in Malawi

The digital storytelling component of this initiative was introduced both to facilitate the process of helping girls capture and share their stories, and also as a monitoring and evaluation tool. More specifically, it was designed to:

• Build the capacity of the partner organisations and girls to develop visual media skills;
• Empower girls to document their own stories;
• Leverage the girls' stories by sharing them with a wider audience to attract more resources for girls; and
• Document the most significant change in the lives of girls.

According to the organisers of the storytelling workshops, "its power lies in the fact that digital storytelling is the coupling of technology with the tradition of personal narrative....In this age of technology, it lends itself to amplifying girls' voices because of the range of platforms that exist to disseminate the content. What is powerful about its application within this initiative is that it gives these tools to a population of marginalized girls who are often excluded from such technologies and platforms. More importantly, it provides girls with the power of shaping and sharing their own narrative in their own voice. It also makes possible for that narrative to be heard in places that the girls would not otherwise reach."

The girls first of all participated in a 4-day training course, where they learned about the basic elements of visual storytelling, including how to:

• Define what they want their community and country to know about girls;
• Create a storyboard to frame the story they will tell;
• Use a video camera (construct and frame a shot, basics of lighting, etc.);
• Identify interview subjects that will help them to tell their story, and how to conduct the interviews; and
• Use an iPhone to edit their footage to construct stories.

The girls were asked to create a collective definition and value statement for the digital storytelling. To guide the group discussion, they asked the following questions: Why do we tell stories? Why is it important to amplify girls' voices? What do you want your community, the nation, and the world to know about girls in your country?

In both Rwanda and Malawi, the girls were also asked to come to a consensus around the messages they wanted to share through their stories and the importance of sharing girls' stories. In Rwanda, the girls chose to tell personal stories that related to messages they wanted to share with their community, their nation, and the world. In Malawi, the girls largely chose problem statements to articulate what the world needed to know about girls. These issues revolved around education, teen pregnancy, early marriage, and abuse.

After the training, the girls went back into their communities with the challenge of collecting photos and footage to put together the story about their lives. The following are the resulting stories:

Power Over, Agnes's Story
22-year-old Agnes, from the Nyamagabe district of Rwanda, had to leave school to help her mother support their family. They struggled with poverty until a neighbour offered her a loan. From there she was recruited by Association Tuvuge Twiyubaka and was able to start her own business and begin a savings account using her "power over" to provide for her and her family.

Power Within, Khadija's Story
Khadija, from Malawi, had just had a baby when Adolescent Girls Corner stepped in to help her return to school. Since then, she has helped five girls in her community return to school and continues to encourage girls in pursuing their education using her "power within."

Power to Provide, Clarisse's Story
18-year-old Clarisse felt lost after her father died and her mother and two siblings tested positive for HIV, but she took positive action to change her family's circumstances. She started with a small loan from Association Tuvuge Twiyubaka (Rwanda) and turned it into a small business, proving her own "power to provide."

Power to Act, Rehema's Story
Rehema describes her early life in the Rugero sector of Rwanda as full of struggle. Orphaned at a young age, she could not afford school and had no marketable skills. This all changed when Action pour le Développement du Peuple (ADEPE) began to support her skills training, allowing her to become self-sufficient and encouraging her "power to act".

Power With, Girls' Collective Story
In this collective story, girls in Rwanda challenge past assumptions that girls are incapable of success by proving that "there is nothing that boys can do that we are not able to do." Through digital storytelling, Rwandan girls have a chance to prove their worth, share their personal successes, and recognise their own power.

When the films were completed, the girls organised film festivals in their communities which gave them a platform to share the short films they had made. These festivals allowed for community members and local politicians to hear about the hardships and challenges of the girls' lives. Following the screening, those in attendance contributed to discussions about what could be done to provide more support and opportunities for girls.

The girls have also presented their stories to District officials, representatives of Nike Girl Hub (in Rwanda), Department for International Development (DFID), and the Novo Foundation. A second round of videos for the Grassroots Girls' Initiative was also conducted in October 2013.

The project encountered some challenges in Malawi and therefore only one story was completed in that country. Due to clashes with academic schedules, the girls in Malawi did not get the same intensive support that the girls in Rwanda received. This resulted in too much time elapsing between their video training and their personal storytelling, which affected their ability to finalise their videos.

Girl empowerment, education, economic development, sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Firelight Foundation is an international nonprofit organisation that identifies, funds, and strengthens promising community organisations that support the health, resilience, and education of children in Africa.

Impact
According to the organisers, "one of the unexpected outcomes of the Digital Storytelling is that the process of documenting and sharing personal stories built confidence, voice, and leadership of girls. The leadership and voice of girls had the added value of increasing reach and influence on government and community leaders paying attention to, and investing in, girls."