The Digital Storytelling workshop was organized in the first quarter of the School of Justice (SFJ) India program. To begin, 6 local facilitators were trained. Then 15 candidates from SFJ India (10 from Kolkata and 5 Mumbai) attended 8 sessions on Digital Storytelling (DST). The workshop was organized by Free A Girl Netherlands and facilitated by Women Win team USA. This is the most successful activity conducted during the reporting period.
The areas of DST covered in the workshop are:
- The ground rules of DST
- Story elements
- The importance and necessities of storytelling
- Story making
- Introducing apps and their uses for video recording
- Tips for video recording
- Images selection according to the story
- Tips for audio recording
- Story sharing of the SFJ candidates
All the candidates were trained on developing their own positive stories, sharing stories on social platforms, and following all the DST standards. They were then given the opportunity to work on their individual stories and each candidate created a small video as stated in the DST guidelines.
Through this workshop, all the SFJ India candidates confidently shared their stories. They were able to gain trust and understanding that they don’t have to share their personal information and identity. The candidates also came to see that sharing their story is about sharing their life experiences. The SFJ India candidates initially only gave permission to share their stories with Free A Girl however, when they understood that their identities would not be shared they consented to share their stories with Women Win and gave permission to use the stories for training purposes.
During the sessions, one of the candidates shared this positive feedback: “If we don’t have to share our identity and pictures then I have no issue with sharing my story. Rather I would be happy if my video can be shared for the purpose of training of other girls.”