Client Stories: Storytelling for Social Change

4 days. 7 changemakers. Dozens of inspiring stories ... with many more to come.

In February, The Speech Republic team flew to South Africa to facilitate a 'Storytelling for Social Change' training course in the heart of the country's city of gold, Johannesburg. In partnership with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation Africa, the training focused on empowering and equipping a passionate and diverse group of civil society changemakers working across human rights defense, whistleblowing, grassroots democracy and youth development, with the tools they needed to share more impactful narratives in the spaces, and with the audiences that mattered to them.

The 4-day immersive training put each participant through their paces, challenging them on all levels of their own personal communication and storytelling development.

If you see something, say something

Looking at South Africa from a historical perspective, it is clear that stories have had and continue to have the potential to create positive change, across communities and at all levels of civil society, as they can influence policy and aid in critical decision making.

As purpose-driven organizations working the civic space in South Africa these professionals showed that they were all natural storytellers and that despite working in (politically) sensitive spaces, with a lot of external scrutiny at times, that they would continue to fight on behalf of their audience - the country, and her citizens.

At the Speech Republic we actively support individuals and organizations who dedicate their time, efforts and stories to making the world a better place.

If you'd like to know more about the civil society organizations we worked with in South Africa, you can find them here:

The Helen Suzman Foundation: https://hsf.org.za/

The Third Republic: https://t3r.org.za/

PPLAAF: https://www.pplaaf.org/

The SA Schools Debating Board: https://sadebating.org/