Collecting HumanInterest Stories

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Collecting Human-Interest Stories
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Purpose

• Sells your project and sells the importance of
  what CRS does
• Puts a human face to the numbers we report
• Explains what we do in concrete (tangible)
  language
• Captures information for future use

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Audience

• DONORS
• fellow CRS staff members
• U.S. Catholics parishes, colleges the U.S.
  Operations constituents
• Major Gift Officers
• partners and others who can learn from our
  experiences

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Before you start collecting

• Choose a coordinator/point person from CRS staff
• Equip the coordinator camera, voice recorder,
  travel budget, translator
• Build in time to
• plan the story gathering
• collect, process, and edit stories (500-750 words
  or 2-3 pages)
• revise stories as necessary

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Where do I get information?Keep in mind that
each of these sources may place importance on
different aspects of the project. This is fine.

• Project documents proposal, reports, evaluations
• CRS staff and, if necessary, former project
  staff project background and history, how
  beneficiaries were chosen, situation the project
  hopes to address, former attempts (if any) to
  solve the problem

• local actors CRS partners, community leaders,
  government service providers, village workers,
  authorities (as examples of where to start)
• beneficiaries direct and indirect, individuals
  and groups

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Basic elements of a story

• Who?
• a real person who is participating or has
  participated in a CRS project
• What?
• project title, partner CRS is working with to
  carry out
• When?
• When and for how long was the participant
  involved with this project?
• When did you collect the story?
• Where?
• country, region/state/ district, town

• Why?
• Why was CRS running this program at this time and
  in this place?
• Why and how did the participant get involved with
  the program?
• How?
• How did the participants life change/improve?
  Please give examples, not just income
  comparisons.
• How is CRS involved with the program? Are we
  funding it? Are we sharing our technical
  expertise? Are we providing lab equipment?

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An example of some (not all) of the basic elements

• Opening paragraph
• When Maimounas mother Dohali brought her to
  the recuperative feeding center run by Caritas in
  Kolda, Senegal in September 2005, they had
  traveled approximately 100 km from the
  Guinea-Bissauan border. The 8-month-old had
  stopped breastfeeding, yet she continued to vomit
  what little there was in her stomach. She had
  been suffering from pneumonia, malaria and
  parasites for several weeks. But even though she
  was exhausted, emaciated and sick, it appeared
  that she wasnt ready to give up.

• who 8-month-old Maimouna and her mother
• what child malnutrition
• when September 2005
• where a recuperative feeding center in Senegal
• why Maimounas severe illness
• how traveling over 100 km to reach the center

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Talking to beneficiaries

• name, age, occupation
• family members (names, household positions and
  ages)
• situation before CRS program
• how they found out about/decided to participate
  in CRS program
• what makes this program more attractive than
  their other options
• how is life different (and hopefully better) now

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Interview Tips

• Be clear about the purpose of the interview not
  necessarily to obtain more funding, but to raise
  awareness and support of CRS activities.
• Obtain consent of the individual or household.
• Create a supportive environment try to avoid
  disturbances like noise, other people listening
  or an overly formal surrounding.
• Minimize the social distance by wearing
  appropriate clothing, respecting gender
  relations, making the interviewee feel at ease,
  not showing disapproval of the information
  received, and so forth.
• Treat the interview as a conversation. The
  interview guide should be used as an overall
  framework, allowing for follow-up questions.
• Recognize potentially interesting quotations.
  Since the final product is a story describing the
  individuals experiences in his or her own words,
  quotations are an important aspect.
• Observe the individuals physical appearance and
  the setting.
• Use a tape recorder if the interviewee will let
  you if not, take notes.
• Accurate and precise translation is essential,
  and worth an investment in time and money.
• Some interviewees might feel uncomfortable in
  criticizing the project. Try to put the
  interviewee at ease, and pay special attention to
  whether potential lessons learned have been
  identified.

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Valuable, strong story elements

• Everyday language, including explanation of
  unfamiliar terms and context for money amounts
• CRS contact for HQ to follow up
• Quotations
• Photographs give photographer credit and write
  captions
• How will the project be made sustainable?

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Valuable, strong story elements continued (with
examples)

• Number of people project will (eventually)
  benefit
• Based on numbers to date, by the end of the
  five-year project, CRS will have seen more than
  90,000 people at these facilities. From these
  former clients and the women volunteers sharing
  their experiences and health messages back
  home, many others are also expected to benefit.
• Unexpected benefits of the program/lessons
  learned
• CRS learned a new lesson that parents needed to
  know more about how to judge whether their
  malnourished children should be taken to a
  feeding center or directly to the clinic. As it
  turned out, a local womens organization was so
  impressed with CRS work that it proposed the
  idea of asking people who had used these
  facilities to volunteer to spread this and other
  health information back in their home
  communities.

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Things to avoid

• Technical, clinical language please use a
  natural tone of voice, as if you were telling a
  story to someone you know
• ACRONYMS, ACRONYMS, ACRONYMS!
• please spell out
• heres what happens when acronyms go wrong The
  LACRO RD visited the conflict area in Colombia
  with Andean ZR, CRS/EC-CO-VZ CR, and CRS/CO CM.
• Too much information on projects technical
  details such information belongs in the Project
  Tracking System

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Photo Examples

• These are two photos taken to accompany a story
  which focuses on a man named Kecouta and his son.
  The first photo is good it concentrates on the
  storys subjects and the lighting is dramatic
  it comes from the window of Kecoutas house. The
  second photo is too cluttered, and it doesnt
  clarify or strengthen Kecoutas story, which was
  specifically related to his son.

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Once youre back at the office

• Construct a story from the information youve
  collected.
• Share story with Deborah Stein (dstein_at_crs.org).
  Once we have communicated, it may be necessary to
  fill in missing elements.
• Share problems you ran into/suggestions for
  improvement in methods with coworkers and Deborah
  Stein.

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Story examples (1 of 3 Maimouna)
It was a long journey for such a small
child. When Maimounas mother Dohali brought her
to the recuperative feeding center run by
Catholic Relief Services partner, Caritas, in
Kolda, southern Senegal in September 2005, they
had traveled for four days from Diameave, near
the Guinea-Bissauan border. The 8-month-old
refused to eat and had stopped breast-feeding,
yet she continued to vomit what little there was
in her stomach. She had been suffering from
pneumonia, malaria and parasites for several
weeks. But even though she was exhausted,
emaciated and sick, she wasnt ready to give up.
When Maimouna arrived at the feeding center,
Sisters Marie Rose and Valerie measured her.
Maimouna only weighed 3.5 kg (7.5 lbs), well
below the weight of many newborns in the United
States and Europe. Even more revealing was her
weight to height ratio. A healthy persons ratio
is 100 percent, and anything below 80 percent is
considered dangerous. Maimounas ratio was well
below 80 percent. The sisters cared for Maimouna
as they had cared for other severely malnourished
children for over 25 years, taking in more than
3035 children per day. Preparing a variety of
meals using U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) food commodities, including
wheat-soya blend, lentils, corn and vegetable
oil, the sisters provided five meals to Maimouna
throughout the day, and treated her infections
with necessary drugs. Three weeks after being
admitted to the center in October 2005, Maimouna
was a new person. Although she was still very
sick and had struggled to regain her strength,
she had gained weight, weighing approximately 4.4
kg (9.68 lbs). She wasnt quite ready to go home
to her community, but she was making
progress. As her mother told CRS, On the day
that I arrived here, I thought that Maimouna was
going to die. I cried the entire day. Now,
Maimouna is better. She no longer vomits all of
the time, she has started eating, she has started
breast-feeding, and she has begun gaining weight.
She has stopped crying. Through years of
experience in recuperative feeding centers, CRS
and Caritas have also learned new lessons from
experiences such as Maimounas while providing
food is necessary to save Maimounas life, it
isnt sufficient to ensure that she wont fall
ill again. So Caritas works with mothers such as
Dohali to teach them how to prepare proper foods,
to identify the signs of illness, and to learn
more about child-care practices. Dohali herself
has recognized this as an important part of the
CRS program I have now learned how to prepare
the proper foods for my daughter so that she
doesnt get sick, including milk, porridge and
other foods.   The CRS and Caritas team in
Kolda are involved in a project funded by the
USAID/Office of Food for Peace Title II program.
Activities include agriculture and food relief
for extremely vulnerable populations located in
communities and centers that assist moderately to
severely malnourished people, especially
children. In Senegal, CRS is providing food
rations to two recuperative feeding centers that
serve populations in the Casamance region, which
was affected by years of conflict. Based on
client numbers to date, by the end of the
five-year program, it is estimated that more than
5,000 people will have been seen at these
CRS-supported facilitates. As a result of former
clients sharing their experiences and health
messages in their home communities, many others
are also expected to benefit.   In these and many
other ways, CRS work seeks to improve the health
and lives of many thousands of men, women and
children, like Maimouna, in communities all over
Africa.
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Story examples (2 of 3 Ba Sinjal)
His pride made it hard for him to beg. As Ba
Sinjal and Mariama walked through the street that
day on their way to the food distribution center
in the town of Kaur, the Gambia, they drew the
same attention as always. He was a blind man and
his daughter was guiding him, both holding one
end of his walking stick. On this day, they were
taking the first steps that would make it
possible for Ba to stop begging for food. Two
weeks earlier, Bas friend, the local tailor, had
explained to him that there was a community-based
program funded by Catholic Relief Services and
implemented through its local partner, Gambian
Association for Food and Nutrition Assistance,
that provided food assistance to disabled people
in the community. Ba had been blind for 15
years, his hands still strong from the years of
working in the field, the rest of his body thin
and emaciated from malnutrition. His face was
proud, only his eyes cloudy with cataracts
revealing that he was blind. Although he had had
problems with his eyesight since birth, Ba had
been able to work and provide for a family of 10.
After losing his eyesight 10 years ago, he was
forced to beg in the local market, as his family
did not have the means to support him. In the
Gambia, there are few social services or
governmental programs to support the aged,
handicapped or mentally ill. In these cases, only
the family can provide for such individuals. In a
country where more than 60 percent of the
population lives below the poverty line, this is
a substantial burden on the household. At the
CRS food distribution center, the staff still
remember the day that Ba registered for the
program four years ago. They had known him from
the market where he begged for food and had seen
him change. A few months after he was admitted
to the program, Ba started to become more
independent. People noticed that Ba was no longer
begging when receiving CRS food. He was no longer
in the market, and people started asking, Where
is he? With CRS food, Ba was able to spend more
time with his family. At the start, he didnt
recognize the staff who were managing the
program. As time went on, when he heard their
voices in the street, he would call them by name
and ask them about the project. CRS and its
partners in Kaur, the Gambia are involved in a
project funded by the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Project activities
include agriculture, food relief, and training in
a variety of communities and health centers
throughout the country. Community management
committees provide monthly dry food rations of
wheat-soya blend, corn, lentils and vegetable oil
to the most vulnerable in the community. This
includes those who are chronically ill or
physically and mentally handicapped, and
moderately to severely malnourished children. CRS
is providing food commodities to approximately 10
community management committees throughout the
Gambia. In the case of Kaur, the center provides
a monthly food ration to over 600 project
participants over a six-month period. Based upon
client numbers to date, by the end of the
five-year program, it is estimated that more than
10,000 people will have received food
commodities. As most beneficiaries also share the
food with their family, many others are also
expected to benefit. In these and many other
ways, CRS work seeks to meet the needs of the
most vulnerable, like Ba Sinjal, in communities
all over Africa.
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Story examples (3 of 3 Lamin)
Lift up your head. Santa Yallah is an
association that provides care and counseling
services to people living with HIV in Banjul, the
Gambia. In a country where social stigma
surrounding HIV prevents HIV-positive people from
being fully accepted by society, Santa Yallah
serves as a safe haven for its members. The
associations name is a clear statement Santa
Yallah means Thank you, God in the local
language of Wolof, thereby transmitting a message
of strength and courage to the community outside
its walls. As Lamin Ceesay, president of Santa
Yallah, explains, Although we are HIV-positive,
it doesnt mean that our lives are over. In
1998, after many years of working and traveling
abroad, Lamin started feeling sick. After
visiting a local doctor for testing, Lamin
learned that he was HIV-positive. When he learned
of his HIV status, he said, I was so sad. I
wasnt married, I didnt have a child, and people
were saying that HIV/AIDS kills. Lamin was sure
that the illness called AIDS would kill him and
take his dreams of a family away. So he hung his
head. But Lamins doctor at the local clinic in
Banjul, the Gambia, would not let him give up.
Lift up your head. You should not be ashamed.
There are others who live with the disease and
have been living with it for a long time. He
explained to Lamin that there was a group called
Santa Yallah that supported other Gambians with
HIV. Lamin joined the group in 1999, when there
were only 10 members. Now, the group provides
support to over 500 Gambians, Senegalese, Sierra
Leoneans and Nigerians living with HIV. Since
those early years, Lamin has been instrumental in
supporting the growth of Santa Yallah, by
speaking out about his HIV status, raising
awareness in the local community about HIV and
AIDS, serving as the associations president, and
campaigning for access to antiretroviral
medications. The association now provides a
variety of services for HIV-positive people and
their families, including care and counseling,
sensitization and awareness, advocacy,
nutritional supplements, home-based care
services, and skills training. As the president
of the association, Lamin is a positive and
courageous force in the community, setting an
example for others living with HIV. While Santa
Yallah provides invaluable psychosocial services
to its members, an important part of the program
is its nutritional supplementation. Proper diet
and nutrition are crucial for people with HIV, as
malnutrition and HIV work in tandem. This means
that the caloric and nutrient needs of people
living with HIV increase as the disease advances.
In many cases, people living with HIV are unable
to work, reducing the income earned by the
family. Therefore, their families not only have
higher nutritional needs, but reduced incomes.
CRS, through the USAID/Office of Food for
Peace-funded Development Activity program,
provides Santa Yallah with a variety of
commodities, including wheat-soya blend,
vegetable oil, lentils and corn, to assist Santa
Yallahs HIV-positive members in meeting some of
their special nutritional needs. As Lamin
explained, When we receive the food, we share it
with our families. Since our families are so big,
it only lasts a few days. But the food
commodities are good and are appropriate for the
diets that our doctors recommend. The food
commodities not only help Lamin to meet his
nutritional needs, but also allow him to provide
income to his family. CRS is providing a food
ration to over 40 recipients per month and
institutional support to Santa Yallah. Based upon
client numbers to date, by the end of the
five-year program, many others are also expected
to benefit. Other Development Activity program
responses include agriculture and food relief in
a variety of communities and health centers
throughout the country. In these and many other
ways, CRS work seeks to meet the needs of people
living with HIV and AIDS and the extremely
vulnerable, like Lamin Ceesay, in communities all
over Africa.