WHAT WE ARE DOING IN GHANA
Our relationship with Adaklu started with a question: What role could personal storytelling actually play here?
Campfire Tales is built around a simple idea: our stories matter. Telling them gives us a way to express our lives, imaginations, dreams and hardships, and to know that someone is listening.
In Ghana, that idea has taken on a much bigger meaning.
A Place to Share
We’ve partnered with Friends of Adaklu, local teachers and elders to develop a storytelling program with students in Adaklu, Ghana.
Each week, we meet over Zoom to explore personal storytelling together. Campfire Tales brings our experience in storytelling, while teachers, elders and students bring their knowledge, traditions and perspectives to shape what the program becomes.
One of the ideas our partners shared early on was the importance of creating more opportunities for young people to talk about their own lives:
“People should feel free to talk about what impacts them, something they've been happy or sad about, because it's healing when you talk about such things.”
Teachers also spoke about the connection between a young person feeling heard and their ability to learn:
“We've realized that no matter how well we teach our kids, our learners, if they have things bothering them... I think learning cannot be impactful.”
Together, we’re creating a space where students can learn the craft of storytelling, listen to one another and build confidence in their own voices.
The program is being shaped around what matters to the students, teachers and elders, with a simple idea at its center: what young people have to say matters.
FROM ZOOM TO GHANA
When we travel to Ghana, we'll continue this work in person. We'll spend time with the students we've gotten to know through a Zoom screen, work alongside their teachers and community, and learn from a culture where storytelling has been central for generations.
WE'RE NOT BRINGING STORYTELLING TO GHANA.
We're creating a new place for young people to tell their stories.
And then we're listening.
THE PILOT PROGRAM
Working in Partnership with
The Hidden Story Project
Together, we are developing an educational program to help kids in Ghana learn the art of storytelling and, ultimately, capture their favorite stories to be published in a book in both English and Ewe.
THE BIGGER GOAL
The larger goal of the project is to create culturally relevant learning materials, preserve the rich history of the community, show kids the power and importance of their own stories, and develop a platform that can eventually be adopted worldwide.
CAMPFIRE TALES' ROLE
Campfire Tales is leading the personal storytelling component of the project, sharing the tools and techniques we use to shape lived experiences into stories and tell them with confidence.
But our goal goes beyond sharing the craft.
We want to help these young storytellers develop the skills and confidence to become storytelling leaders themselves, so they can lead others, share what they've learned, and create new opportunities for more young people to tell their own stories.
WE NEED PEOPLE TO HELP
We’re looking for US-based volunteers to join the project via Zoom as mentors and storytelling coaches, help us raise funds for future trips, and become part of this absolutely incredible cross-cultural exchange.