Booklet

Storytelling and experiences of being “strangers”

STRANGERTHE

PARTNERS

fylkesbibliotek

TEATRO DI ANGHIARI

Introduction

Collective Recommendations

Methodology

Northern Ireland Institute for Conflict Research Norway AFI and Work Research Institute Oppland County Library and Lom Public Library Italy Teatro di Anghiari Turkey Hayatbilder

Reflections on Being a Stranger Partners

Reflections on Process

Evaluations

Links

CONTENTS

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8

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47

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67

71

6

When we began this programme, the partners, (who hailed from four

countries: Italy; Northern Ireland; Norway and Turkey), were Strangers

to one another. We came together professionally to consider how

Storytelling could be used break down barriers between Strangers.

Based on the context in each of our countries, for the purposes of this

process we began by asking ourselves “Who exactly is a Stranger?”.

We debated long and hard, challenged by the realisation that we had

more Strangers in our midst than we had anticipated and, for the

purposes of this project, agreed to define Strangers as:

those who were economic migrants and refugees;

those who were seeking asylum;

those who come from the religious, ethnic or sectarian 'other' or

minorities within our nation states; and,

those neighbours who continue to remain strangers to one

another because of diverse languages and cultural practices.

This document charts some of the methods we employed to consider:

how the process of storytelling could help transform feelings of

isolation;

the process undertaken with reference to challenges faced;

the deve lopment o f a se r i es o f par tner - spec i f i c

recommendations for using storytelling as a way to address

social inclusion.

The document begins with a synopsis of collective recommendations

drawn together from each country's experience that we deemed

universally applicable for those committed to developing storytelling

projects. This is followed by a country specific section which looks at

the experiences of each of the partners. It is noteworthy that the

Norwegian section is sub-divided into two categories reflecting the

experiences of both of that country's two partnerships, one of which

was carried out its work in a rural area and the other in an urban context,

but both using the library system as a focal point. As a result of our

INTRODUCTIONS

7

diverse circumstances, each of the partner sections gives focus to

different models of success evidenced at differing stages in the process.

For some this began and ended with recruitment, for others it was the

'product' of an archive of stories that could be shared and used for

training purposes in future projects, for some this work was carried out

in small group settings, with others work was conducted with

individuals. For all the partners, it was agreed that it was necessary to

ensure that there was a framework in place to ensure the use of ethical

principles in how storytelling is conducted.

What follows is a synopsis of this process.

In parallel with the work we carried out with the Strangers we had

recruited to engage as participants in each of our countries, we

deliberately made the decision to conduct this programme as a process

of experiential learning for the Partners. We aimed to proactively

reflect on being a “Stranger” first hand, as a group of partners with

diverse backgrounds. Bit by bit, over a series of meetings in one

another's countries and by using storytelling as a key medium, we

explored the similarities and differences in our lives. We socialised,

spent time with one another in concentrated and unfamiliar residential

situations over a two year process where we began to open up our

personal and professional lives to one another and to share aspects of

our individual life stories. We engaged in more formal storytelling

processes and, through role playing, workshops and site visits, we

considered and built stories about our personal histories, our

geographies, genders, work practices, interests and family

circumstances. Slowly, exchanging these stories changed our status as

a group of Strangers, united only by a common project and began to

strengthen relationships as we shared our confidences. Consequently,

by the completion of the project, Strangers have now become respected

colleagues and friends with deeper understanding of what it feels and

means to be a Stranger.

8

1. The venue in which any Storytelling programme takes place is

crucial and needs to be considered in terms of what might act as

a barrier to participants including accessibility, facilities, social

and cultural norms.

2. Adequate preparation time and resources need to be given to

any recruitment and engagement process as does ensuring that

linguistic and cultural expectations do not create tensions

within groups and between individuals.

3. Trust must be established as an integral part of any process

before storytelling commences and so team building and

getting-to-know-you exercises in group situations are useful.

4. People in a group can be ready at different times to engage in

storytelling. Whilst not all participants in group sessions are

always able to share their stories, their presence as active

listeners can be just as important.

5. The use of props and prompts can aid memory recollection and

are particularly useful with those who are older or who have

learning disabilities and degenerative diseases.

6. Participants need to be clear about the purpose of engagement

in any programme to ensure commitment and the process

should not be confused with any psycho-therapeutic

interventions.

7. An agreement may need to be reached with participants to

clarify how any stories they share will be drawn on, who will

have access to any recorded materials and how any story might

be edited or disseminated.

8. Facilitators need to have the capacity to identify, provide

additional support to or to signpost onto other organisations

those participants who become vulnerable as a result of

engaging in any process.

9. Storytelling is both cathartic and inspirational, participants who

engage in the sharing of their stories should be affirmed to feel

valued, respected and positive about their contributions

however challenging the process has been for them.

10. The formation of a working group drawn from key stakeholders

in the community and the participants can be productive in

supporting and sustaining a project.

COLLECTIVERECOMMENDATIONS

9

NORTHERN IRELAND Institute for Conflict Research

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ORGANISATIONALINTRODUCTION

The Institute for Conflict Research (ICR) is an independent, not-for

profit charity that works throughout Northern Ireland on the

development of policy and practice relating to the social inclusion of

those from minority communities and communities of interest.

Northern Ireland remains a country that is emerging from years of

conflict with high levels of no or limited contact between many

Protestants and Catholics who comprise the two largest communities.

Their preferred choices of separate social housing and schooling reflect

a key feature in how public sector services are delivered to communities

reluctant to connect with one another.

ICR carries out action-based research with policy impacts within

minority communities to ensure that their needs and rights are

represented to those who are in a position to support them including to

government departments, statutory service providers and those

working and living in neighbouring communities. We deliver diverse

training programmes to further this work including those with a focus

on in anti-discrimination, community relations and the shared use of

public spaces. We have a particular commitment to working with those

who have suffered discrimination as a result of their ethnicity,

nationality or membership of a minority community of interest.

11

What have we done? Methodology

Northern Ireland has an indigenous ethnic minority community called

Travellers or Pavee whose culture is traditionally itinerant and one

based on oral traditions. Women from these communities are at a

further remove from both of the already segregated majority

communities. Many of them experience extreme forms of poverty, poor

physical and mental health and have very limited or no literacy skills

with very restricted educational attainment, much of which is related to

their social isolation. ICR decided to focus the project on these

Strangers – namely, the Stranger within. To that end we contacted a

non-governmental agency working with Travellers and, after a series of

consultations with some of the women using their services, we designed

and began to deliver an eight session story-telling programme to

between 8 and 20 women from seven Traveller families.

With no dedicated materials within the education curriculum about

their lifestyle, the women felt that their culture and heritage were at risk

of being lost and were undervalued within their own and wider society.

By facilitating a space and process where their traditions could be

remembered and articulated through storytelling, the aim was to record

their stories so that they could also be used to raise awareness about

their traditions, to break down barriers and to address prejudice.

At their weekly meetings carried out in a location that they chose, the

women came together to share reminiscences. The meetings were

convened by ICR and co-facilitated with an established, published poet

that we engaged for the process. Each session ended with a shared meal

and on two occasions the women were taken on site visits with their

children and grandchildren to both prompt the flow of their stories by

taking them to places they had passed through when living a travelling

and not sedentary lifesty

The programme culminated with the production of an illustrated book

“StoryBox” which captured vignettes and reminscences of Traveller's

lifestyles from earlier times. On publication, copies of the book were

presented at a public ceremony by the women to senior government

representatives and to the Head of the Libraries Service in Northern

Ireland which were then placed in all of the libraries and mobile libraries

throughout Northern Ireland.

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In addition to attending the group meetings between Partners ,

programming and hosting a series of events in Belfast with guest

speakers and performers, ICR took the opportunity to meet bilaterally

with both of the Norwegian partner organisations to discuss

programming and outputs and to understand better the circumstances

in which they were delivering the project. ICR also played a lead role in

the editing of the contributions for this resource. We took

responsibility for facilitating the evaluation part of the programme at

the Anghiari meeting and for working with both the Turkish and Italian

designers on the translation, editing and proofing of this communally

agreed document.

Challenges faced and obstacles overcome

In the first instance we considered working with those from the

majority community on issues relating to the conflict, but based on

previous experiences we rejected this as we were concerned that as a

result of telling stories with any traumatic content that what the

participants might reveal could result in their requiring ongoing

psycho-social support that we were unable to provide as part of this

programme.

This programme was one which was taken to, rather than initiated by

the participants. So, to, minimise any likelihood of drop off, we wanted

to ensure that those who engaged felt that it was something that had a

goal and an end product that they valued rather than simply being a

diversionary activity. To that end we agreed that a tangible outcome

would be a booklet that participants could use to pass on the value of

their customs to their families and to the wider community.

The group of participants we recruited did not find it easy to commit to

each component of the programme for a variety of reasons (including ill

health, caring commitments, job related and other appointments with

statutory service providers) and they often brought children or other

family members along when they could come which changed the

dynamic in sessions. This meant we needed to be flexibile in our

delivery to ensure the focus of the group was not disrupted and that

people remained engaged. We worked closely with a family support

worker when we took the participants and their families out on site

visits as she knew the participants and their grandchildren and children

well.

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Recommendations

When working with those who are vulnerable or may be retraumatised

by engaging in a storytelling process, facilitators should ensure that

there are adequate support mechanisms in place prior to beginning this

work to aid participants who are vulnerable to the process.

Working with older people requires special attention to detail and the

chronology or sequencing of their storytelling. They may find the

process can be helped by encouraging participants to bring props and

prompts such as photographs or by being conducted in settings that

can evoke memories.

Providing refreshments and making the process an event allows the

participants to feel valued and affirmed.

Reassuring participants about the use, purpose and ownership of their

stories can help to bring trust in a process that may be unfamiliar.

Example of a story told This story was told by a woman in her late 60s recollecting her

ch i ldhood wi th in a community that l i ved pr imar i ly in

wagons/caravans/trailers on the move and where illiteracy was the

norm – she spoke with pride and humour about her Grandfather who

could read.

Grandfather's Penny Glasses

“When you were travelling through a town or a village, you would go

round with cans and buckets to collect water for cooking or washing.

Some people could be very friendly and come and meet with you and

play with the children. Other times you might come to a bad spot where

they wouldn't give you water. So we would go to the graveyards instead.

You see there is always fresh water taps in graveyards. We would fill up

our cans and buckets there. Now my grandfather wore glasses and no

Traveller wore them even though half of them would be stone-blind.

You would never see a Traveller with glasses, because they would say

only country people wore glasses. But Grandfather was different and he

had these penny glasses. He used to love reading and we loved listening

to his stories. There wasn't television at that time and he would read all

the little books that my granny would get when she was out trading and

selling things at people's doors. He would read stories and all the

children would listen. And they would be jealous because no-one in

their families could read. And we'd be playing around with all the kids

in the camp and sometimes when we were fighting they'd say “Your

grandpas a 'speccy' four eyes” – but they had to make friends with us

again quickly because they used to like to hear him tell stories so much.”

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BELFAST’SPHOTOGALLERY

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NORWAYWork Research Institute

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ORGANISATIONALINTRODUCTION

The Work Research Institute (WRI) is a social science institute

established in 1964 performing multidisciplinary, action-oriented

research. From 2014, WRI became incorporated into Oslo and Akershus

University College of Applied Sciences.

Our aim is to produce systemic knowledge of working life. The Institute

is especially concerned with forms of organisation and leadership

which promote the collective ability to learn, cooperate and adapt and

thereby create a better working environment.

WRI emphasizes the importance of broad, action-oriented research

programs based on the needs of working life. The programs are formed

in close collaboration with Norwegian business and industry, both in

the public and private sector, as well as with national and international

research institutions. The institute also carries out short-term projects

for organizations, companies, government agencies and other public

bodies.

There are currently 43 researchers employed and organized into four

sections: Innovation and Industrial Development; Coping, Work and

Diversity; Community, Work and Politics and Organization of the

Welfare State. Sociology, psychology and anthropology constitute the

majority of the disciplines within the Institute, but we also benefit from

the expertise provided by our graduates in engineering, law, medicine

and other disciplines. Several staff members have adjunct scientific

positions at universities and colleges.

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What have we done? MethodologyAt the outset, WRI planned to recruit participants with migrant

backgrounds from two workplaces where we had previously run

research and development projects and invite them to form groups at

their workplaces. However as we ran into practical problems as a result

of shift-working practices, we decided to look for other places to recruit

participants for the groups. As a public library in Oslo, Holmlia

Deichmanske Library, was willing to start and run storytelling groups,

we felt this would provide a complementarity to our partners in rural

Norway whose focus was also to be on running Storytelling as an

extended Library services to those from new migrant communities. A

delay to the implementation of the programme occurred with a 'dead'

period of three months due to a change in and recruitment of new staff

at the Library and a further delay in recruitment because of a vacation

period. In due course, (October 2013) we arranged and conducted three

two-hour group sessions at the Holmlia library with between 12 and 14

participants participating in the three group sessions. All were migrants

from a variety of countries, the majority of which were from Asia, and

predominantly Pakistan and India.

The sessions were based on a program with small introductory and

simple storytelling exercises:

BEING A STRANGER. Experiences and stories about being a

stranger in a new place (Participants came together in groups of

four. Everyone told a short story about a time where they were a

stranger in a new place (a school, a job, a city, a country, in the

store, on the tram, at the library or similar).

YOUR NAME. Tell the story of your name. Who gave you your

name? What does it mean? Why were you given that name? Do

you have any stories related to it?

THINGS YOU HAVE BROUGHT WITH YOU. Tell about one thing

you have with you. Show us the thing and tell about it. How did

you get it, what does it for you, what do you use it for, etc.

FUNNY MISUNDERSTANDINGS. Stories about funny

misunderstandings and confusions you have experienced.

The intention had been to start with the migrant group and, as soon as it

was functioning at an adequate level, the plan had been to recruit

participants from the majority population to exchange stories across

the two groups. However this proved to be impossible and after the

third (and last) session took place before Christmas 2013, we decided

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that this line of working was not as productive as it might be and

terminated the group sessions to focus on the learning to date and on

the co-ordination of the programme and with providing support to

partners.

Challenges faced and obstacles overcomeWe faced several considerable challenges and obstacles which

necessitated a change in direction to keep the programme alive.

It proved unwise to recruit onto voluntary programmes in the

workplace when participants are engaged in shift work. Employees are

not eager to extend their time at the workplace one or two hours before

or after their shifts to participate in voluntary programmes. Nor were

the employers willing to support the project financially, despite the

benefits this might bring to a more integrated workspace.

It took a long time (several months) from the decision by Deichmanske

Holmlia public library to convene storytelling groups until this work

could commence. The unanticipated delays had a big impact on the

process and on WRI's own working practice.

The Norwegian language proficiency in the group of migrants that was

recruited was too low to be able to work successfully with the group in a

forum for storytelling. Nearly all exercises, even the simplest, were

performed with an absolute minimum of words. We had to terminate

the group sessions because the sessions did not take us anywhere and

we could not observe any progress.

In hindsight, we should have started the recruitment process earlier and

might also have benefited from having made a “Plan C” as it turned out

that the recruitment processes at were not particularly successful.

Learning and RecommendationsBased on our the WRI experience, there is reason to believe that to be

successful with a recruitment process with groups where their lives are

determined by working shift patterns there is a need to incentivise and

motivate potential participants to spend their time engaging in groups

like this.

People from the majority population will often have more developed

social networks and access to a broader variety of social arenas,

organizations and communities than people from immigrant groups.

Consequently the social incentive to participate in mixed groups like

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the ones we had in mind might therefore be weaker for the majority

population than it is for new migrants. New migrants may be more eager

to participate in such groups as there is potentially a stronger incentive

for them to need to socialise and this provides an opportunity to learn

and practice the Norwegian language.

The intention was to put together groups of migrants and people from

the majority population to share stories and experiences about

“strangeness”, about being a stranger and the journey from outsider to

insider. In this way, sharing the identification of common human

experiences of being outsider, was expected to create a common ground

between the participants.

Our experience indicates that it is perfectly possible to create a common

ground using all kinds of stories. It is not necessary to use stories and

experiences with being strangers as a point of departure. But such

stories can also be used – alongside other stories fit for the purpose.

We also think that it contributes to the formation of a common group

identity if from the outset one is able to identify and agree upon a

product that the group process will produce. An example can be a small

collection of stories, a storytelling evening or other things.

The settings where the group sessions take place are significant. In a

workplace, cross-cultural groups might contribute to the development

and improvement of relations between groups of employees that will

continue to work together. Both the employees in question as well as the

workplace itself might therefore benefit from the work of such groups.

A public library, on the other hand, is a public setting where relations

between people are more ad hoc and superfluous and with less

permanence. To create a longer lasting impact on the social relations

between participants in any storytelling group, there must be

opportunities for the group members to continue their interactions

after the termination of any programme. It is not self-evident that a

public library is always best-placed to provide such opportunities for

groups of clients. It might, for example, be better to involve various

NGOs that can provide group members and interested parties with

access to more permanent facilities.

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OSLO’SPHOTOGALLERY

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NORWAYOppland County Library

and Lom Public Library

fylkesbibliotek

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ORGANISATIONALINTRODUCTION

Oppland county library is a centre of competence and an initiator of

library development in the Norwegian county of Oppland. The County

Library coordinates and provides services for 26 public and 15 high

school libraries.

As of January 2011, immigrants and people with immigrant parents

constitute 12.3 % of the total population of 186,087 inhabitants in

Oppland.

Lom Public Library is situated in the small mountain municipality of

Lom in Oppland County. The municipality has 2,358 inhabitants, which

is small even by Norwegian standards.

Lom Public Library participates in The Stranger project along with the

County Library. They facilitate and initiate local storytelling groups. To

help the library run these groups, they get help from volunteers and

teachers from the adult learning centres in Lom and the neighbouring

municipalities Skjåk and Vågå.

The public library has 3 employees and is open five days a week. In 2012

the library was awarded the prestigious Norwegian Library of the year

award. The Library participates in the cultural activities in the

municipality, as well as being an inclusive arena and a natural meeting

place for people in the local community.

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What have we done? Methodology

Planning and running the Storytelling Groups

The project began with the establishment of a working group with

representatives from the library, the adult learning centres and the

volunteer centre in Lom. The group planned four storytelling group

meetings to be held throughout the Spring of 2013 and the

responsibility for recruiting participants to the meetings was divided

between members of the working group. When working with the

different groups over the four sessions, the Librarians from Lom

introduced the concept of “The Stranger” and undertook the process of

collecting their stories relating.

Recruiting Participants

Participants were recruited from library users, pupils at the adult

learning centre and the local secondary school. The challenge was to

recruit ethnic Norwegian participants specifically to create dialogue

between minorities and majorities. The librarians, teachers and some

volunteers represented the majority communities. It was easier to

recruit participants to the migrant group than it was for the group

comprising members of the majority community. We recognised that

more than the majority community, those who are new migrants need

an inclusive arena in which to meet people and an opportunity to

practice and use the Norwegian language. Most ethnic Norwegians

already have well established social networks and busy everyday lives

and consequently it can prove to be a challenge to get them involved in

projects such as this one.

The Group Meetings

4 sessions were held.

st1 meeting. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT. This was a start up

meeting where information was disseminated about the project and

about storytelling. The library staff invited two local storytellers to tell

stories from their own lives. The event was structured to also allow for

music by local musicians and for the opportunity to socialise over

coffee and home-made cake.

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nd2 Meeting A THING THAT MEANS SOMETHING TO YOU As a warm

up exercise, all the participants explained the origins of their name, how

it was given to them and what they knew about its meaning. After this

introduction, the session changed to focus on the evening's theme of

the evening. Some of the participants had prepared a story to tell to the

group which they had begun to prepare at the adult learning centre

before the meeting.

rd3 Meeting WOMEN ONLY - LADIES AND LOVE At this session,

almost all of the group had a story to tell abaout love, marriage,

menstruation or other women specific issues. The stories were told in

Norwegin, English sign and body language. The women appeared to be

more comfortable without men present and lost some of their

inhibitions and spoke more freely than they had previously.

th4 Meeting MEN ONLY – TALL TALES This storytelling session was led

by a male teacher from the adult learning centre. The participants then

warmed up by telling a story about their name. The evening ended with

music and singing which seemed to be a good theme for a later

storytelling session.

The AtmosphereIt was important to create an atmosphere where the participants felt

secure and safe. It was also important to ensure the participants were

familiar with the aim of the project and what our understanding of

storytelling is as it can have different meanings and uses in different

cultures. Coffee and cake were prepared for each meeting which made

the event more relaxed and sociable within the chosen meeting place,

and one where it was easier to talk informally with different people.

The theme for each meeting was introduced by one of the people in the

group telling a personal story relating to the event's theme. This was

intended to create trust between the group which comprised both

ethnic Norwegians and the other participants and to achieve a goal of

making the working group and the participants into one storytelling

group.

Challenges faced and obstacles overcomeInclusion and integration is in itself a big challenge and this was clear to

us all throughout the work we carried out on the project. We never

thought storytelling groups in the library would revolutionize

integration in our community, but we did believe that the project could

27

provide be drops of something positive for the participants. We

continue to hope that Storytelling can, like ripples in water, spread and

create change and better integration over time.

Practical challenges

Transportation

Transportation from the neighbouring villages of Skjåk and Vågå was

an on-going challenge. The working group were responsible for the

transportation of the participants. In rural areas in Norway there is

almost no public transportation in the evening. Reliance on having

access to a car and a driver's licence, can be a serious problem for

migrants and in particular to women.

Time

Time also proved to be a challenge as many people have different

cultural expectations of what constitutes the being 'on time'. We began

to tell participants that the storytelling events would start 30 minutes

earlier than we actually planned to begin to ensure that they would be

there and ready to commence. This proved to be a good choice!

The challenge of integrate and engage the immigrants outside the

storytelling groups

We hoped that a side effect of the project would be more migrants

visiting the library and their becoming more familiar with us and our

services. However this has not yet been seen to be the case. While the

participants in the storytelling project come to meetings, they are rarely

seen in the library otherwise. Since a few of the participants were

initially library users, we thought they might visit us more after getting

to know the librarians and the library services better. The library is a

key institution used to access information about local societies and in

particular in rural Norway, about the areas surrounding the small

villages in which they exist. The library is, furthermore, the principal

place where information about events, activities and organizations are

found to help integration within communities.

The challenge of engaging Norwegians

As part of the project, we invited the well-known writer and speaker

Amal Aden to a public event in the library. She is a refugee from

Somalia who arrived alone in Norway as an asylum seeker. Her personal

story is remarkable and has been a key theme in most of her books and

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speeches. This event was open to everyone and was intended to be a

good way to introduce the storytelling project to our community.

Unfortunately as only a few people showed up we became a little

disappointed and wondered if an interest for integration and inclusion

was absent in our village. But, there can be many different reasons for

poor attendance at this event and therefore we have not drawn any

definite conclusions.

We have not yet had a storytelling group meeting open to other

indigenous Norwegians. While working on collecting stories, only

migrants and members of the working group were invited to the

storytelling groups. The reason for doing it this way was to make the

participants feel secure and free when telling their personal and

sometimes difficult stories.

The next step, and our anticipated continuation of this storytelling

project, will be to get more people from our village involved. We want to

try to get some of the migrants from the storytelling groups to present

some of the collected stories to schoolchildren, in workplaces or at

events in the library.

Recommendations

Our experiences from the storytelling project are mainly positive. It was

rewarding to get to know new people and the atmosphere at the

storytelling meetings was indescribably good. We left every meeting

uplifted, inspired and feeling exceptionally lucky to be working with

this project. We have the impression that the participants have felt the

same way. We have experienced a great deal of mutual trust and this was

reflected in the content of stories that were told during the meetings.

Creating and maintaining a good atmosphere where participants felt

safe and secure was important. The theme of every meeting was

introduced through a personal story told by one of the work group

members. This created a bond of companionship and made it easier for

the migrants to share their stories.

It was a success and a subsequent recommendation that sometimes

groups be divided by gender with different themes in each group. The

Ladies Night was particularly successful with more than 20 women

participating, almost all of whom shared a story. Some of the stories

were very emotional, intimate and difficult to tell. There were tears, but

also a lot of laughter. Some of the women told stories they never would

have told if men were present.

Our working group, with representatives drawn from the local adult

learning centre, volunteers and librarians, functioned excellently.

29

It was valuable for us to have partners who work with migrants in our

local community on a daily basis. They brought both the skills and the

knowledge required for the project. Before and after the meetings with

the storytelling group, migrants and teachers at the adult learning

centres focussed on the current theme in the class.

We invited migrants from our neighbour municipalities to join the

storytelling group. This was initially to get more participants. However,

an added benefit was closer cooperation between neighbouring

municipalities and emerging and new friendships among the migrants.

We found that in small municipalities like ours, extending support to

migrant community members across municipal borders is important.

To be able to speak your own language and practice your own culture is

important for everyone.

Examples of a stories told

A story about falling and being in love. Woman (24) Iran

I was sixteen and had a boyfriend in Iran. We loved each other and

wanted to get married, but my family didn`t agree. We wrote letters to

each other. He delivered his letters outside our house. He hid them

under the stairs. At night I went outside and collected them and also

left my letters to him there. He drove a car and used to drive past me and

my friends when we were walking to school. Twice I spoke to him on the

phone. I was at my uncle's and borrowed his phone. One time we met at

the square. I was shopping with my mother and he was keeping close to

us. My mother didn`t like it and I had to pretend I didn`t see him. Once,

he met my brother on the way to school. They started talking about me

and my brother wondered why he was so interested in me. My boyfriend

said that he loved me and wanted to marry me. Then my brother

knocked him down.

One time we met in a shop. He bought fruit and behind one of the

shelves he gave me an apple. No one had to see us. I didn`t eat the apple,

but tucked it away in a closet at home.

In winter my parents didn`t think I should walk to school, it was too far

and too cold, so three other girls and I went by taxi. One day when I had

my examinations and finished before the others, I went in the taxi by

myself. But the driver didn`t drive me home. He drove for two hours to a

place I didn`t know and said I had to stay there because he wanted to

marry me. I told him I already had a boyfriend and I didn`t want to

marry him, but he didn`t listen. He took me with him to his aunt where I

30

stayed for one month. I didn`t have a phone. My family didn`t know

where I was until he called them after a week and told them he wanted to

marry me. My family didn`t agree, but I couldn`t go home. We got

married and lived with his father and stepmother who didn`t like me.

She said I couldn`t cook and we argued a lot. We lived together for four

years in Iran. After three years I got pregnant and we went to Turkey

where we lived for two years. There my husband found himself a

mistress who lived with us in our home. I was depressed and wanted a

divorce, but my husband refused. In Turkey I came in contact with a boy

who had relatives in Norway, and in 2011 we came here. We lived

together for one year. Now we`re divorced and my husband lives in

another part of the country.

After a few years, my mother found a dried apple in the closet at home.

Aida (43) Palestine

When my son was 19, he got private tuition on Saturdays. As he wanted

to be an engineer, he got lessons in mathematics and physics. We had

come to Baghdad from Palestine and our eldest son had been born there.

One Saturday when he had lessons in mathematics, he didn`t come

home afterwards. We looked everywhere for him and finally we found

him in a hospital. He had been knocked down on the street and had

major injuries to his head. For a period he was in and out of the

hospital. The situation was tense and people were often brutally

knocked down and killed around us where we lived. As my injured son

had a Palestinian background, the situation was particularly difficult.

After the last operation at the hospital the doctors said that his head

would not bear more beating or heavy mental strain. We decided that

he had to go back to Palestine where the conditions had improved. The

rest of the family moved to another part of Baghdad before we fled to a

refugee camp in Syria. Wherever we went, as a memory of my son, I

brought this toy monkey that he loved so much when he was little. One

winter night in 2009 my son came to Vågå, 6 years after we had parted

from him, we met again. My son has come to Norway and waits

anxiously whether he is allowed to stay here.

31

LOM LIBRARY’SPHOTOGALLERY

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33

ITALYAssociazione Culturale

Teatro Stabile di Anghiari

TEATRO DI ANGHIARI

34

ORGANISATIONALINTRODUCTION

Teatro di Anghiari (TdA) normally works with groups of adults (theatre

and autobiography training programs) and groups at risk of social

exclusion, mainly with alcohol and drugs abusers (featuring the Ser.T,

the Drugs and Alcohol Department, and groups of students from the

Italian secondary school), immigrants and anti-racist organizations.

TdA often mix theatre and video languages, to set and show our

personal point of view about "storytelling". TdA members are

storytellers and have been producers of community theatre since 1996

(Tovaglia a Quadri Festival), collecting stories that belong to the

tradition of the social struggles for equal rights in Tuscany and Italy.

Since 2002, TdA have also been involved in a project about the Fascist

Concentration Camp n. 97 of Renicci, Anghiari, where more than 150

people were jailed, tortured and killed, most of them deported from

Yugoslavia during the Nazi fascist invasion of 1942.

35

What have we done? MethodologyTdA's role in The Stranger project has, like the other partners,been to

collect, develop and disseminate stories, but TdA played a leading role

on teaching, adapting and developing the storytelling methodology

within the partnership. TdA also organised the final "3 day workshop" in

June, 2014.

In The Stranger Project we used a methodology to collect life stories

with which we have been experimenting in Anghiari over the past ten

years. This methodology was developed through the connection

between Teatro di Anghiari's work on storytelling and Libera Università

dell'Autobiografia's (Free University of Autobiography) process of

collecting narratives and using them to tell stories of community.

The autobiographical methodologies enables the participants to

perceive, identify and manifest his/her own needs, they are founded on

the principle that retracing one's own life story enables a person to

engage in "reflective behaviour", or rather auto-reflectivity, which

permits learning from personal experience, both the personal and form

other's perpsectives.

This kind of methodology consists of people telling and writing their

stories or doing a narrative interview.

In the project we use a narrative interview according to the following

steps:

1. Preparatory Phases

2.Thinking and constructing the interview

3. Contact

4. The interview (the biographical and narrative dialogue)

5. Rework/Feedback

This final stage is one of the most important moments. When you have

collected a life story, you can use it to make people think, learn and

understand. First of all it is useful to the person who tells the story, but

it is also potentially powerful for a community and for broader society.

In fact, if we consider a life story in a book, a documentary, a

performance, through storytelling, we can reflect ourselves in the story

of the others. When we work with stories of “strangers” we can use them

to improve the inclusion process, to understand the real meaning of

integration, to make all people feel welcomed in the community and a

part of it.

36

What we didWe decided to integrate what has been done in the past with the

objectives of the project, and to involve in the project different people

from different countries. We contacted people knowing them

personally or people known by public service, at schools or at a public

aggregation centre for young people.

We collected three life stories: a young Kosovarian student, who has

been living in Italy since the end of the '90s, a young woman from

Romania, a woman from Equador and finally we chose to share a story

we collected some years ago, because we believe that it is a good one to

understand “a hope trip”. They all live or lived in the small area of Italy

where Anghiari is.

What we did in the project was also to share our methodology and

practice allowing the partners to understand first-hand our chosen way

of working. We explained this at our Oslo meeting, we went more in-

depth about theatre and storytelling in Belfast and then provided an

opportunity for experiential learning for the other partners in Anghiari

in October 2013 at a specific workshop.

Challenges faced and obstacles overcome

Challenges Faced/Obstacles Overcome

The biggest challenge of all is to keep alive (among our group) the topic:

to be "a stranger" today. Because we feel comfortable as researchers,

artists and "cool" people, we can sometimes forget how it feels to be a

stranger. So, we started to reflect on the ways to approach to

"storytelling" and to the narrative performances as well with our open

groups of strangers.

Exploring methods for challenging stereotypes is a never ending

experience, and we learned a lot from the "stranger actors" including

better methods for a development of inter-cultural dialogues between

the majority and minority of our population.

The Challenge of trust

During the last months of 2013 we continued to collect life stories of

young migrants and their relatives, in the small context in which we live.

Sometimes we faced an understandable feeling of suspicion and

mistrust (for example: "Why must I be a witness for all the bad stories

37

from which I run away?"), and we took a lot of time to gain the trust of

our participants. We tested our autobiographical method individually,

and storytelling proved to be the tool that best fits each individual.

Another challenge was how to mix the stories of the strangers with the

stories of Italian immigration and emigration. It is not easy for Italians

to admit that we ourselves are a nation of immigrants, probably one of

the biggest one. This kind of "storytelling crossover" produces an

interesting form of common ground.

The Challenge of Bureaucracy: waiting for a new Europe

One story that had been collected (the story of Albertina Mustafa, a

20yrs old Kosovan who has lived in Italy since the late '90s) was due to

be told at the workshop in Belfast by the protagonist herself. However

this proved to be impossible because at Pisa airport when we were due

to depart for Ireland (Pisa Airport), we encountered problems with her

passport. As a result of restrictions, with a Kosovan passport Albertina

could walk on European soil, but needed a visa to enter the UK and

Ireland. The travel agency told us that everything would be alright but

unfortunately she was unable to come and participate in the workshop.

She was forced to take the train back to Arezzo. This proved to be

another and very sad way for us to realise what it means “to be a

stranger”.

Recommendations

The skill of storytelling provides to the same person a space for

her/himself. When we collect a story of life we face the other person

who gives it to us as a gift. It's a relational space that allows us to

overcome boundaries and deepen personal knowledge, to underst

something that we did not know before .

The person who tells us her/his story has the opportunity to revisit,

revise, and, after the story is transcribed, to be read.

If the person decides that her/his story should be known, this allows the

story to be treated accordingly and to be shared in an open space,

perhaps through the language of the theatre and of storytelling. This

allows the listener to reflect on the story told and it may help him/her to

better and more deeply understand, learn and discover something new

about the other person, in this case, " the stranger ."

What we did during the project is something that we had previously

done, and it allowed us once again to sit, listen, discover details that we

would not have imagined. We reflected on the empathic dimension that

38

can be generated by storytelling. This is the basis through which to

begin to understand, to talk , to go beyond stereotypes.

This method can be applied in any context. It is important that if you

decide to use a narrative interview, that those who use it have done

training that focusing mainly on the personal meanings that the

narrative itself can bring.

Finally, it was very useful in the Stranger project to know which

narrative methods have been used in other contexts and in other

countries, because this produces a movement of practices and ideas

that can develop other methodologies.

Example of a stories told Albertina's story

My name is Albertina Mustafa, I am 19 years old and I was born in

Kosovo, a small country in the Western Balkans. I have lived in Italy with

my family since 1998, when the war broke out in my country. In Kosovo,

many ethnic conflicts took place, as it was part of former Yugoslavia,

but it has always struggled for its own independence, due to the strong

Albanian minority which is present in the region. My country has

proclaimed its independence in February 2008. I've lived in Italy for 16

years and I'm currently studying and living in Pisa, where I am attending

the first year of a degree in ”Science for Peace: International

Cooperation and Transformation of Conflicts”. I saw this course as the

only suitable for me among all those I had knowledge of during my

choice; it is a very interactive course and it opens the doors to many

working environments. We also study very interesting subjects, such as

Law, Philosophy of Peace, Maths, and Sociology of Conflicts.

I was born in Podujevo, in the northern part of the country. I lived my

first years with my family, my mum and dad, my grandfather, two

uncles and my aunt. I have wonderful memories of that period, above all

I remember the rural landscape, the animals, the fields and my

grandfather. My parents always recall that period as tough time, Kosovo

was a poor country and there was no work. There was also much

discrimination, and even studying was difficult, because universities

were frequently shut down due to demonstrations.

I came in Italy in January 1998. I was almost 4 years old when my mum

and I joined my father who had been working for some years here in

Italy, in Anghiari. We settled in my uncle's house, where I had two

cousins of my age. The first memories I have are from the nursery

39

school, where everything was pleasing and colorful. I do not remember

having any problems with the language, as a child I must have learnt it

quickly. Months passed away, I remember the carnival party in the

square, summer holidays at my relatives' in Switzerland and Christmas

time when with my classmates we sang Christmas carols.

At the beginning of 1999 news from Kosovo were getting worse, and we

began to speak about a war.. We were already in Italy when the war broke

out, and almost all of my family was still in Kosovo. In the beginning,

they only talked about tensions and little attacks, but then in the news

they began to speak about ethnic massacre, death and refugees, and we

lost contact with our relatives. Those were hard times. We were not

aware of anything and we lived of hope and endless phone calls, as we

were desperate for news. My parents used to cry, and I didn't really

understand what was going on.

I didn't understand the word WAR.

In June, we were informed that my grandfather had died from heart

attack, and we left immediately after to go back; we entered in Kosovo

with the refugees who were in Albania, and their eyes said it all. I could

only see devastation, terror, sadness, and desperation in their eyes. The

memories I have are clear, and I will never forget them… The war lasted

about five months, and the following years were the ones of

reconstruction, and we came back every year, we rebuilt our house and

our country. Only as the years passed by did I really realize what had

happened. I've strongly tried to grasp why those inequalities and

hatreds were so settled in those places, as to lead up to a real genocide.

At the end of the summer we came back to Italy, and we moved near

Anghiari, in Sansepolcro. I was growing up, going to school and keeping

on with my life, but my heart was still set in Kosovo.

When the reconstruction of my country started, the hope for a better life

aroused. In 2008, after junior high school, I decided to keep on with my

social studies. I took Sociology, Psychology and Pedagogy at school, and

I graduated last year.

I have felt at ease since the very first years here in Italy, and I have been

lucky enough not to be a victim of racism. At school, as well as in other

environments, I have met sympathetic and welcoming people, who

didn't make me feel like a “stranger”.

In the last few years, I have been taking part to a festival organized by

“ESPLORAZIONI”, an association I've been attending since three years,

that every year dedicates three days to inter culture. The festival closes

40

with an event called ”FESTA DEI POPOLI”, where every ethnic group has

the opportunity to make its voice heard inside the community, through

dances, songs, or simple interventions, and in the end we eat all

together! The atmosphere is magic; many people, many different faces,

many colorful dresses, different languages and music of every kind! The

most common expression is a smile. I fell in love with this festival when I

was really young. I was going around the square asking why the stand of

my country was missing. They told me that they couldn't find anybody

available to organize it, so I arranged the presentation of my country by

myself three years ago. In 2011, the festival was dedicated to Kosovo

and Albania; we cooked typical dishes and we invited Albanian singer,

closing with an amazing evening. I really found the association very

welcoming, with so many open minded people who offered me lots of

opportunities. Last summer I hosted the event, and it was exciting

beyond words! I was there, on the stage, doing what I like the best,

introducing different cultures in front of a city that was glad to invite

them. The festival hosts every community, and it is an important

moment of integration and union. We leave behind differences and face

up to each other; all that matters is that we all are human beings, world

citizens before being citizens of a country.

I have come to understand lots of problems regarding inequalities, and

the truth is that it is easy to hate that far cry from us; we're afraid about

what is different, and we try to fight it diminishing and striking it down.

In Yugoslavia, compulsory integration has been applied, without taking

into account cultural traditions of different communities and, as a

consequence, this has led up to a gradual disintegration.

I have seen with the eyes of a child what the war brings. Racism,

intolerance and inequalities only bring hatred, and hatred is difficult to

fight. Thus, important and fundamental is to teach respect for

differences, because differences enrich the world. These experiences

helped me to choose my university studies. I chose a special course

which is only in Pisa. Through this course I hope to figure out what are

the mechanisms that lead to conflicts, to be able to transform them into

peaceful coexistence.

About my arrival and my stay here, I would say that I've lived in a foreign

country without feeling a stranger, but still not perfectly integrated;

perhaps the problem of the second generation is that we fail to figure

out to which part we belong, but I am realizing that this is not a problem

at all! It is also difficult to explain; I would cheer the Italian team in every

41

football match, but if it played against Kosovo, I would cheer Kosovo.

The possibility to choose and feel of belonging to two different

countries is the beautiful. However, when I speak with other people

from Kosovo who live in Italy, different ways of thinking come up, as,

for them, Italy is not a second home, but rather a moment of transition

awaiting the return, which is difficult to date for everyone. My father

always tells me that we arrived in Italy with the firm belief that one day,

when we would have arranged our lives in Kosovo, we would go back.

Now that belief has become a hope for all of us; we see Kosovo nearly as

our ITACA, where we will go back one day, without knowing when.

There are so many things that keep us tied to the country where we live:

in the first work because it's very difficult to find a job in Kosovo, and

especially maintaining a family with salaries that are around 300 € per

month. Also Education ,health care, social life, politics, everything

works better in European countries. Kosovo still has to work hard to

reach the European standards.

However, even considering all those aspects, I would try to go back to

my country of origin. I hope to find a job in the social environment. In

Kosovo there are lots of opportunities in this setting: sex

discrimination, domestic violence, integration between Serbian and

Kosovan people, education for tolerance, ecology, etc… through my

studies I would give my contribution for a better society, where

everybody could feel integrated, by educating for tolerance and respect.

Perhaps I have great expectations for the future, but I would hope so

too, and I would try.

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Carmen's story: “The land of Dreams”

My name is Carmen Meghes, I was born in Romania the 29^th November

1976. I am married with Marian, who is 43 years old. I have two children,

my son is 18 years old and my daughter is 15 years old. I live in

Sansepolcro since three years.

I lost my father when I was 8 years old. When my father died, my mum

worked a lot, she used to leave at 5 am in the morning and she came back

2 am, and we stayed almost all the time alone, watched by our neighbor

who sometimes came down to see how we were. When our mother came

back at 2 am, she used to cook on a black pan, bacon and scrambled

eggs, she brought them to us and made us wake up, and said: “I want to

see you eat at least once a day!”. If I close my eyes, I can smell that bacon.

I have lived my childhood during the dictatorship of Ceausescu, I

remember that our neighbors were Christians, we didn't know God yet,

and when it was dark, they used to sing those songs aloud, and we could

heard them throughout the building, it was the only time they felt free.

Ceausescu didn't allow freedom, and we learnt I don't know how that if

we put a can on the wall and then lean against our ear, we could

understand the words. As we could listen the songs, but we didn't

understand what they said, so there were moments in which we were

waiting when the light was turned off with the jars already prepared

near the wall, and immediately we put our ear against the jars to better

understand what they were saying. It was our game, and we spent days

and days to make this game.

When I finished the high school, I moved in the autumn of that same

year, with Marian, we heard about those journey to find a job and my

husband's brother was already here.

It was difficult because two years without your family, without receiving

a picture, and with a phone call once a month… He left when my

daughter was one years old and he hasn't seen her for two years. The

night he came back, he told me: “You do not tell me that this is my

daughter!”.

I arrived in Italy for the first time to visit my husband, I came to Padua,

then I came back, he was back for a whole year, then we decided to go

back to Italy together. He said “come with me”, it was the biggest

mistake we have made in our life, to leave without our children. My kids

were with my mom, and then it was bad when we heard their stories, we

when we went back we realized that our children were fine, but also

awful: they went in the wardrobe to smell the perfume of my clothes,

43

took my pajama and put it, or they put the pillow over their face so

Grandma did not hear them cry and did not worry about it.

Today for me to see them growing up in a foreign country means to give

them the opportunity to know another environment, to see if you can

get used to it, to settle in another environment. I have always thought

that the house is where there are mom and dad, and I wanted to prove to

everyone that if the kids are with us, whenever they will find the home

and I am happy because they have proved that they have settled down

as best they can and they now see Romania as a holiday country and now

when they say "I want to go home", they speak of their home in Italy.

When I was in Romania there was a wonderful country called Sibiu , I

have never been there, but I had heard so much about it, the stories of

this country, a village with tall houses all close, with tiny streets, all

made of stone, I have always wanted to go there, and I remember that

our first relative who arrived here in Sansepolcro said: "It seems to be in

Sibiu". And my heart jumped and I said, “But I have come into the land

which I wanted in my country, and now I see it in Italy ?". And this is

Sansepolcro ... the land of dreams!

In my opinion integration takes place from both sides, you cannot just

talk about integration on the one hand, you cannot ask to be accepted….

Integration is walk into a store without feeling the look that you are a

foreigner to enter and steal, it means that I go to a lawyer who gives me

all the explanations that I need without thinking that there are things

that I do not have to know because if I do hurt those who I have hurt me,

integration means to me that there will come a day for my daughter to

have eight in Italian, at school, because she deserves it, integration

means that when you go to work and make your best, you will be paid as

an Italian. For my future I would like, from the spiritual point of view

that I will meet my children one day in heaven, from the material point

of view, the moment that my children will find a social stability, the

moment in which they will have a job and will be respected in the society

in which they will struggled to be integrated.

44

ANGHIARI’SPHOTOGALLERY

Photo: Giovanni Santi

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TURKEY - KAHRAMANMARASHayat Bilder

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ORGANISATIONALINTRODUCTION

Hayat Boyu I�lerleme Dernegi – HAYATBILDER, Lifelong Progress

Association – HAYATBILDER is a non-profit non-governmental

organistaion (NGO) located in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. The association

organizes and implements activities that contribute to the development

of society, especially in lifelong learning, self-development, public

awareness on culture and arts. The majority of members of the

association are teachers and young people.

The association provides training courses and trainings on arts, graphic

design, costume design, photography etc. for young people and for

adults. The activities are implemented in collaboration with

governmental and/or non-governmental organizations by

approximately 300 voluntary participants. The association's Board of

Directors consists of members who have experience in EU Lifelong

Learning Programmes and Youth Programmes.

We have a Youth House under our governance and this is the only Youth

House in the city, where young people come together to engage and

create in cultural, art, sports and other activities. They are also given

courses any relevant issues. Such a house makes a significant

contribution to their creativity, social conscious and personal

development. Our organization is a member of Environmental Platform

of the Province.

49

Methodology The current status and its analyse

A briefing containing the introduction of the project was made for our

association members to provide more information about the Stranger

project and to adapt it. The participants were split into groups and each

volunteer group negotiated with the street authorities in areas in which

the 'strangers' live. In these negotiations, the problems migrants

encounter and the precautions to be taken against these problems were

established. The volunteers worked to demand the needs of the local

public by informing them about the needs of the migrants, their

neighbours and the project. As a result of these efforts, they have

guided many foreign adults and children in different areas.

The meetings being held

The indigenous young people and the migrants came together on the

chess, photography and painting courses being carried out in our

organization once they gained information about the projects of our

organization. Our members who volunteered to collect stories and on

integration organized evaluation meetings.

A representative of a local theatre group, talented in telling stories,

presented a seminar to the participants. Education and interaction

sessions have been made by psychologists and personal development

experts within public institutions. The authorities of our organisation

made the necessary negotiations with the local authorities to access any

required permissions.

The general gain and the strategy to be followed

Those members who were shy or not forward in expressing their ideas

have been helped to overcome this at the meetings that were held as a

result of the mutual sharing process. One of the most important factors

making the strangers feel at ease was that some of our volunteer

members joined the meetings with their own parents. The sweet noises

of the children have helped the meeting last in a more friendly way.

The things we have gained here will be a guide and experience source to

lead our future work. It must be kept in mind that each stranger has a

different story for his/her own, that story is sometimes visible or

sometimes it is in the deepest part of his/her heart and the necessary

approach must be taken in accordance with those stories. The most

important thing for the stories to be revealed is that they must have a

good listener because everybody has stories in his/her life.

50

Challenges Faced/Obstacles Overcome

It required a great deal of attention to work with those people who had

to leave their country not because of their personal and social

development but because of their life's being in danger. We had to be

careful to this touchy situation and behave accordingly. When we took

into account that they had many troubles, we faced the drawback that

they didn't feel free about telling their feelings. But we tried to

understand their position and the situation became almost normal for

us.

Practical challenges

Language

The most significant challenge was that there wasn't a mutual language

between our members and the strangers. We faced many obstacles in

relation to communication. We felt relaxed upon meeting some groups

who knew a little Turkish and English. They helped us to overcome

language problem after focusing on our work. Arranging our meetings

and the time at tent city where many Syrian refugees lived was not easy.

Conseqeuntly, we frequently had to change our meeting times.

The integration of our association members and the foreigners

Some meetings were facilitated specifically to address a desire for

integration and harmony among our association members, volunteers

and the foreigners. We held acquaintance meetings among the young.

We also had some meetings between the old and the young so we looked

for some solutions for our needs. And we had some volunteers to

address our all kinds of need.

Future plans

We are planning to arrange a language course for the foreigners after

our evaluation. This work will be done with a project and sent to the

local institutions that supply the grant. Courses are also being

arranged for the young.

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Examples of stories told

Story 1

Name: Tahir from Syria

Age:35

On 22nd September, 2014, we had to move to Kahramanmaras province

in Turkey from Syria with our personal belongings that we were able to

take with us due to a 'balls-up', in other words the war in our country. On

the one hand, the war became unbearable and for my family's safety, we

had to migrate here and on the other hand, we accept Turkey as safe and

very close to us. We asked for help at the first border gate from Turkish

authorities. After being enrolled, we could get into Turkey. It was very

deep darkness for us, just because had no idea about what was waiting

for us.

Thanks to God, we don't have any kind of a problem. On the contrary, we

are pleased and safe here. Within this period, both the authorities and

public extremely stand by us. After we migrated here, I found my elder

brother who was already in Turkey. For some time, we had to live

together at the same house but you can guess that it is so difficult that

two crowded families live in the same house. When I found a job, we

decided to move to another house.

But, of course ,we have language problems. We believe that we will

overcome this problem because the people from all ages here are very

eager to help us and they deal with our all kind of problems. Although

there are some differences between our life-styles, we have the same

religion and feel that it is a good advantage for us. We appreciate that

there are many hospitable people here. And we are able to live here

without feeling the problem of life safety.

Now, we watch the situation in our country on TV and thanks to God,

we feel lucky to have left there. And we wish and look forward to a

peaceful, safe, healthy and comfortable life for my family.

Story2

An immigration story from Greece

Name: Halim

Age: 91

We departed from the geography, which we were born on, in 1924 on the

occasion of the Population Exchange between Turkey and Greece in

1924. I cannot remember those years since I was a little boy then, but I

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was grown up with the stories of my father and my grandfather. We

were both lucky to live with that generation, who were the heroes of the

stories we were told, and unlucky to witness such sadness. Just think for

a while: we left behind everything, even our memories and even the

roots of our existence. I used to realize may father deep in though and I

knew that he was thinking of Salonika then. Of course we were not the

only family, which migrated from Salonika. During that process within

several years, approximately 500.000 people migrated to Turkey and

settled in different provinces of the country and we settled in Amasya /

TURKEY. There was no cultural difference; because Salonika had been a

city of the Ottoman Empire for years and our families had grown there

based on Turkish and Islamic culture and traditions. For that reason, my

family did not experience a problem of cultural adaptation when they

arrived in Turkey. However they had the problems of leaving everything

behind for a while. We did not have monetary problems either, because

the government provided place for the migrants and helped them build

their own houses and provided the migrants with job opportunities.

Despite the fact that I was born in Salonika, I am pleased to have grown

up in Turkey. If we had not migrated during that period, we would have

been lost and assimilated within a different culture.

Story 3

Name :Izabella from Hungary

Age :33

I am Izabella from Hungary. I live in Turkey with my husband

Husamettin- a Turkish man. The moment I came to Turkey in 2008, I

met with Husam while we were working together in a same hotel. At

first, I did not know so much about Turkey, the culture and the life.

That's why, I did not want to give chance to Husam and I heard some bad

things about relationship with men of eastern countries. Slowly I began

to know him and we fell in love each other. But still, there were a lot of

questions in my mind about the future. It was so difficult that we could

not speak the same language so we created our own language from

English, Hungarian, Turkish and German. And we used our body

language and the “activity”. It was funny but the most important thing

was that we understood each other very well. Suddenly, my job was over

here and I had to turn back to Hungary. A very difficult time came into

our life. We were so far from each other, but communicated through

phone and internet every day. Later I wanted to come to Turkey to see

Husam more time. Then t was easier to understand Husam.

53

If I wanted to come this country I had to travel here and only bought a

visa for 15 or 2oEUR, but if Husam would like to come to me it was so

difficult situation of the non EU country / Eu country laws and

bureaucracy. One year later ,we made a decision and got married in

Hungary. We had to solve a lot of situations, lots of paper works and

face again the bureaucracy. My family loved him very much, but

unfortunately lots of other people (friends, relatives and other with who

we met in Hungary) had prejudice in connection with him and our

marriage. Why? Because he is a Turkish man, a man from east, a man

who is Muslim. Unfortunately most time ,the media told some bad

stories about “mixed” relationships, about east and the people

believed. Those prejudices were terrible! Our culture, religion and

language were different but thanks to our love, we got over the

difficulties. Following our marriage, we wanted to live in Hungary. My

husband gave up his job in Turkey and began to live in Hungary. We

tried to find a job to him, but unfortunately we could not find a proper

one for a long time. Day by day, it became more and more a difficult

situation for him. I saw that he was sad and it would be a problem for

our relationship. For a man, it is more important to work, exspecially in

his culture. I did not want to lose him. So we made a decision and came

back to Turkey because he received more great offers to work.

I have a good relationship with his family and we love each other. They

are far from us. Sometimes this is a nice advantage for us but not

always. I should learn more habits of them and their culture. We have

been living for more than 2,5 years in Turkey, separately from his

family. It is great because we can live as we wish and this way is easier to

solve our differences such as our culture and habits. I love this

beautiful, colourful country. The people here are so friendly and

positive. I am a foreigner here, but I feel that the people like me. Of

course, sometimes it not easy because of the culture . I am not Muslim

but my husband is. This is a very colourful country and a religious

country but in the meantime so modern. Turkish and Hungarian culture

is different from each other but some points are similar: for example

our “original” history, meals, our language, folkways etc. We are

learning our language of each other. It is not so easy to find friends but

slowly I have found some good friends and also a job. We have some

plans for the future and we would like to have a baby. Probably we must

face to other problems and situations, but we will solve it because we

trust our love is strong enough. I like here and I've started to feel that

Turkey is my second home.

54

KAHARAMANMARAS’SPHOTOGALLERY

55

Reflections on being a

Stranger Partner

56

ICR, Northern IrelandStorytelling is a challenging medium to work in when using oral or written testimonies as the primary medium of communication between strangers. Were this project to be developed further, and I see an immense value in this, there would be a very strong case for broadening out the concept of storytelling so that it included the visual, the musical and movement. This could also open the project to engage those who have different levels of communication skills so that the participants did not need to be adults who are articulate and ready to communicate using their own or a learned tongue. It has become clearer as a result of participating in this process that it is also the gaps in stories, the abstract parts of the narrative or that which isn't the most explicit, that allows us as strangers to connect with one another. Being able to dance, or make music, or paint a story can sometimes enable communication in a way that relying on language cannot and this is particularly useful when working with those whose stories are rooted in sadness, loss, separation and trauma. Being given the opportunity to think about this issue as a Stranger, and in so doing to experience life in remote and rural areas with different climates and cultural expectations than those in Northern Ireland, opened our eyes to some of the choices that have to be made by citizens that are not on the radar of people in our part of the world. It was surprising how easy it was to feel comfortable and simultaneously to feel uncomfortable in situations where it is not possible to explain yourself or be heard easily and to realise that you are always at risk of being misunderstood, or causing offence or hurt.

WRI, NorwayIn a previous EU project (Voices across Boundaries, 2007-2009) where WRI, Teatro di Anghiari and Libera Università dell'Autobiografia were partners, storytelling turned out to be an interesting tool that demanded further exploration. The focus for the project was marginalized and vulnerable groups, stigmatized identities and these groups' communication with the majority population. In The Stranger project we wanted to experiment with mixed groups composed of representatives from majority/minority populations to explore the potential of storytelling as a dialogue enhancing method. We were also interested in exploring the potential in storytelling in change and development processes in workplaces with employees from many countries. Being a Stranger partner has been interesting from various perspectives even if we did not achieve our main objectives. We have shared interesting experiences (not at least in Belfast) about storytelling as a tool for creating dialogues and seen that storytelling is an activity with broad appeal across many dividers. The partnership has been composed of organisations with different positions, professions, interests and activities. We think the journey was worth the effort.

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Lom Public Library/Oppland County Library, NorwayOppland County and the municipality of Lom have experience an increasing number of immigrants recent years. Libraries are a natural meeting place in the local society. It is one of the public areas immigrants first seek when arriving to a new place. Asylum seekers and other immigrants are frequent users of the library. In order to promote social inclusion of marginalized groups and individuals of different cultural backgrounds, we wanted to explore new methods of developing libraries as inclusive arenas and facilitate intercultural dialogue. Being a partner in a project like The Stranger has given us new perspective and new methods. Cooperating across sectors and countries, as we have been doing in The Stranger has been incredibly valuable to us. Our partners have presented different approaches and solutions that have been inspiring us in our work with libraries in Norway.

Ass. Culturale Compagnia Teatro Stabile di Anghiari, Anghiari, ItalyTo be involved in a project like this, it means a lot for a theatre/educational organization like ours. First, to increase and get a wider point of view about being different "strangers" in the same European "case". We got a fantastic chance to explore the 'playground' of our new partners (especially the Nothern Irish) and the unique opportunity to go in deep in the relations with the old ones (AFI-WRI). Even if we have faced some little breakdown of communication along the road, we learned fundamental lessons from our partners that we transferred in our current workplaces.

Hayat Boyu Ilerleme Dernegi, Kahramanmaras, TurkeyWe, as the Association, carry out activities in our region within the scope of the project on social and cultural issues. Thanks to the “Stranger Project” we had the opportunity to work with the groups, who have not taken place in our projects in the past. Such new meetings helped us to expand our target group portfolio and to establish wider and more creative ideas for our future projects. Story telling activity within our project helped the participants express themselves in a more sincere way. To participate in the project as an association contributed our studies in the field of adult education and helped us act as a guide on this issue. We had the opportunity to learn different perspectives and current situation regarding the position and role of strangers living in different countries; we had the opportunity to get to know alternative approaches.

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Reflections aroundthe process in

The Stranger

59

Work Research Institute, Oslo

How well do you think the project was implemented compared to the

plan?

The objectives of the partnership were stated in the application section

D.3., page 40:

1. To explore and assess narrative methods for challenging

stereotypes.

2. To involve members of the majority population and minority

groups in sharing stories about being and meeting a stranger.

3. To exchange experiences between the partners

4. To make a booklet with stories and guidelines for how the

technique can be used in a number of different settings.

5. Improve and extend methods for development of inter-cultural

dialogues between minorities and the majority population

When commenting upon the partnership's achievements in general, we

have to bear in mind that each partner operated in their specific local

settings and the process and results therefore differ from setting to

setting. As a whole, the partnership addressed and did progress on

most objectives. It seems that most problems were connected objective

no 2. The creation of – at least lasting - common meeting places and a

common ground between representatives for the majority and minority

population was difficult to achieve with the available resources and

time span of the project.

The exchanges of ideas and experiences with various models, methods,

examples and knowledge about storytelling as a tool for social

integration purposes, were however quite useful.

Language problems were an obstacle that to a certain degree limited the

scope and level of the discussions.

What were the main barriers to implementation?

The partners met different barriers in their local settings. In general, we

think the main barriers were language problems, local recruitment

problems and lack of experience with storytelling methodology.

In your opinion, to what extent did the project create a common ground

between the participants?

The partnership created to a certain extent a common ground between

the partners. Various off program activities were efficient ways to build

relations and get to know each other.

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What do you think about the level of commitment in the partnership?

The topic of the partnership created commitment among the partners.

To some extent we think the level of commitment was related to the

partners' type of profession, mastery of the working language, interests

and previous experience with the topic of the partnership.

What do you think about the level of participation in the partnership

meetings and between the meetings?

Our experiences from previous partnerships of similar type indicate

that some partners tend to be more active than others in various phases

of the project. The same pattern has been repeated in this partnership,

possibly reflecting the partners' various interests, knowledge and

experiences.

What would you do to make your next partnership function better

than this one?

The Stranger partnership “lost” two important partners in the

application process and the partnership was reduced from seven to five

partners. It has been difficult to plan Grundtvig Partnerships in any

detail because the way the application process has been designed. One

can never be sure which and how many partners who will get their

application granted. Therefore, one always risk ending up with a

reduced and different partnership than you planned with. Partners that

were assigned key roles in the planned partnership cannot participate

and this strongly impacts upon the available resources and

opportunities in the partnership.

Future partnerships therefore have to be planned in such a way that

“reduced” partnerships are sustainable. The previous weakness with

the Grundtvig partnership application processes have however been

repaired in the LLP programs successor – Erasmus Plus.

Better planning and agreed upon allocation of tasks in the partnership,

would in our opinion also have improved the partnerships level of

functioning. As it were, it was left to each partner to prioritize, “find

their way” and implement local versions of the partnership in their local

settings. A more coordinated approach might have produced a better

process and better results.

61

Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast

What were the main barriers to implementation?

The programme provided us with a series of challenges in terms of

defining what we understand by the concept of being a Stranger.

Through a series of activities undertaken within the different regions as

part of the mobilities we were able to evidence that each partner

responds in different ways to the diverse opportunities they have when

working on Storytelling with Strangers. Language and the nuances of

meaning within both language and cultures have to be carefully

considered throughout the implementation process. For those

partners, such as Northern Ireland who worked mainly with Strangers

who had the same linguistic but different cultural backgrounds,

decodifying the use of language through the nuances of expression,

meaning and interpretations can be as challenging as those who worked

in translation. This was as relevant to us as partners as it was to us as

programme deliverers.

In your opinion, to what extent did the project create a common

ground between the participants?

The programme provided us with very tangible opportunities to

connect and explore common ground in a variety of ways: over our

experiences of common thematic issues; by looking country by country

at overarching structural challenges and those relating to age, gender,

and social class; by providing much needed spaces to discuss and

engage in exploratory conversations in 'alien' environments.

What do you think about the level of commitment in the partnership?

Different partners brought different strengths and challenges to the

partnership. Consequently some partners were more difficult to

engage with than others for a variety of reasons. To address this, the

Northern Ireland team sought on occasion to connect with different

partners by attending bi-lateral meetings with all of the partners. We

were able to realise this with three of the four partners but not so in

others due to partners' existing commitments. We found the lead

partner to be particularly accommodating in supporting this chosen

way of working.

What do you think about the level of participation in the partnership

meetings and between the meetings?

The Northern Ireland team is very happy with our own level of

participation in activities and communication with other partners. We

62

recognise the value of Drop box and other new media and

communication tools in realising inter-meeting communication.

What would you do to make your next partnership function better than

this one?

Schedule Skype meetings on a regular basis to ensure that we revisit the

aims and expectations of all partners on a regular basis.

Make contingencies so that participants are aware of structured 'Plan

Bs' if anticipated programmes that are scheduled for country visits

cannot be adhered to.

Oppland County Library, Gjøvik and Lom Public Library, Lom

How well do you think the project was implemented compared to the

plan?

We feel that implementation of the project locally in Oppland worked

out as we expected. The challenge has been to involve both members of

the majority population and minority groups in the project. In this

project and similar projects, our experience is that involving people

from the majority population is difficult because they don`t have an

incentive to attend. Recruiting Norwegians who haven`t already a

positive attitude towards the minority groups are difficult.

Minority groups in Oppland County are mainly immigrants. They are

easier to involve. They don`t have big families and many friends in

Norway and want to build a new network here. Also opportunities to

practice the Norwegian language, is an incentive for immigrants.

Even if there weren't many representatives from the majority

populations, Lom public library managed to create an inter-cultural

dialogue.

What were the main barriers to implementation?

An important barrier in the implementation of the local project was the

participant`s language skills, transportation to the library and to

manage to get the participant to attend all the meetings. Little

experience with storytelling as a method of creating dialogue was also a

barrier. The library staff is used to being storytellers, but they don`t

have the same experience making other people tell their story. The

project group had to learn along the way, and running a similar project

later will probably be much easier.

In your opinion, to what extent did the project create a common

ground between the participants?

I think we managed to create a common ground. The project objectives

63

and strategy as described in the application made it easy to know what

we had agreed on and what our goal were.

What do you think about the level of commitment in the partnership?

In my experience there`s been a high level of commitment in the

partnership. Even some of the partners, ourselves included, have

experiences troubles keeping deadlines when it comes to written

contributions we still feel that the partners have been committed to the

project.

What do you think about the level of participation in the partnership

meetings and between the meetings?

We find that the participation in the partnership meetings has been

relatively good. There`s been a lot of enthusiasm and involvement at

the meetings. We also find that all the project managers have

participated in the communication between the meetings.

One thing we miss in the project is more information between the

partners about local projects. We`ve only updated each other on

progress at the partner meetings.

What would you do to make your next partnership function better than

this one?

The project description from the application and the time schedule and

distribution of responsibility agreed on at the first partner meeting

should initially lead to a very good project. Good planning is a key

element to a good project, and we find that this project had a good plan.

There will always be changes during a two year period and the need for

alterations will appear.

A way to make next partnership function even better could be to have

even more meetings between the project managers. Maybe video

conferences could be something to consider in other projects.

Hayatbilder Association, Kahramanmaras

How well do you think the project was implemented compared to the

plan?

We are in the opinion that we implemented the project in utmost level in

accordance with the project plan on institutional base. Of course, some

obstacles we faced have slowed down the implementation process and

forced us to make more effort to reach the end. There made concrete

positive changes by applying different methods and techniques in

project work.

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What were the main barriers to implementation?

We had to create mutual areas of work with the foreigners living in our

region in the purpose of our project. This situation caused us to have

some problems while carrying out the project. The problems were such

as approach, language and communication problems with them who

had to come to the region.

In your opinion, to what extent did the project create a common ground

between the participants?

The project helped institutions to have more information about each

other and prepare the basis of an international cooperation for the

future activities of them. It helped us to have alternative approaches by

having opinions about the activities, approaches and techniques of our

project partners and especially our local partners dealing with the

projects for foreigners.

What do you think about the level of commitment in the partnership?

We see that we get effective results when the partners are organized and

directed well. It was very important to come to a mutual agreement

during the decision making. This increased the cooperation among us.

What do you think about the level of participation in the partnership

meetings and between the meetings?

We think that the participation could be organized better in partnership

meetings. It was a negative point that some partners couldn't join some

activities and couldn't be represented.

What would you do to make your next partnership function better than

this one?

Firstly, we would work again with Steinar and Katy. We would organize

project partnership analysis better in local benefitting from their

institutional experiences and personal work techniques and we would

create a powerful communication network to get better results. We

would arrange the time plans for activities in three or four days. We

think that project partners and workers must spend more time with

each other.

Ass. Culturale Compagnia Teatro Stabile di Anghiari, Anghiari

How well do you think the project was implemented compared to the

plan? (Plan = the description in the application)

The project has been very useful to know (and to explore) different

approach to the same arguments. We have exchanged experiences and

shared in-depth methods related to the objectives of the project. We

appreciated the commitment of the partners to challenge stereotypes in

65

their own 'framework', to disseminate better methods for development

of inter-cultural dialogues between the majority and minority

population. The milestones of The Stranger project have been well

implemented compared to the plan, despite some lack of

communication probably due to available resources compared to the

huge number of people involved (stranger/immigrants). Language was

sometime a problem, especially for the development of an intercultural

dialogue between the minorities and the majority population. We try to

overcome this gap through other languages: theatre, music and, in one

word: storytelling

What were the main barriers to implementation?

The main barriers were language problems and a different experience

with storytelling methodology as a start. This difference was almost

overcome through multilateral workshop

In your opinion, to what extent did the project create a common

ground between the participants?

Looking back to our past projects, this partnership created a new

approach to set (and build together) a common ground between the

partners. We established and carried on together a program full of

activities and workshops that have given a sense of unity to the groups

What do you think about the level of commitment in the partnership?

This project showed a remarkable commitment among the partners.

The different professional experiences and skills have been a great

resource

What do you think about the level of participation in the partnership

meetings and between the meetings?

It's not easy at all to keep alive a project between the meetings, but the

experience of coordinator (AFI) has been very useful to keep it alive step

by step. Of course, there are different ways to approach to a meeting,

probably due to the various experiences and expectations

What would you do to make your next partnership function better

than this one?

We found some difficulties along the road and we tried to resolve them

the best we could. It was interesting (though sad) to invite a young

Kosovan to join a project called "The Stranger" and to see her stopped

and sent back at the Pisa airport, because she was a "stranger". We are

storytellers and we use to work with life stories, so we would like to get

in the future the chance to give a performing feedback (theatre, video

and music) of what we did in the project. It could be interesting to

develop intercultural dialogue through setting/building new venues

and places to let the people meet together.

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67

EVALUATION

68

Reflections on the Programme and Process

To enable an evaluation of the programme, a reflective session co-

ordinated by facilitators from Ireland with expertise in storytelling

programmes, was scheduled during the final partnership meeting in

Anghiari. This allowed participants to reflect on the Process as

experienced. All partners agreed that engaging in 'Process' was as

valuable as 'Product' on this programme and felt that the findings from

this session could be usefully drawn on when designing and delivering

any extension of this or a related programme.

By way of summary of that session:

Positive operational aspects and outcomes were identified as follows:

- The building of relationships between the partners and the

ability to discuss challenging issues and come to a resolution

was seen as a key development.

- The diversity of the partners, coming from public, voluntary,

and cultural bodies brings together different and

complementary ways of working.

- The diversity of the site visits which took place at the different

partner country meetings were inspirational and enabled

further debate, adaptation and consideration of the process.

- Modelling good practice was a helpful methodology.

- The co-ordination and oversight provided by the lead a Partner

was valued.

- Those partners new to storytelling as a methodology found it a

significant learning experience which they were applying

elsewhere as a direct result of the programme.

- Those Groups which succeeded were managed well and sought

to continue working together.

- The Stranger was an apt title. At one level the partners arrived

themselves as strangers with different experiences under one

title- An inclusive concept.

Overall reflections and opportunities for change:

- The concept of 'story' telling is a complex one that became more

apparent throughout the delivery of the project. There would

be benefit in dedicating time clarifying and debating what are

the differences in each cultural context between Storytelling,

Stories, , Life Story, Autobiography and Reminiscence work.

69

- Space for reflection and the creative process needs to be

factored into work as sometimes the beurocracy connected to

the operational practicalities was felt to reduce creativity.

- Continuity in attending meetings is essential to good

communication, team building and an ongoing buy in to and

understanding of the programme.

- The loss of partners at the start impacted on the project's

design, delivery and outputs.

- Being able to honour the local story in a global context can be

problematic, particularly when editing a narrative for

publication. There was a question as to how to take difficult

narratives and help them make sense outside of the locale.

- Language and translation challenges resulted in the

anticipated evaluation framework and the use of shared

technology such as Drop Box proving problematic and

therefore was not adhered to by participants and became a

challenge.

What we would change next time -

- Be more aware of the practical difficulties of arranging

meetings between the agencies in each country.

- The need to visit all the projects to learn from them but also

in terms of recognising their role in the programme.

- The need to understand all the learning outcomes even when

projects didn't come to fruition

- Bearing in mind time to consider language difficulties and the

cultural nuances in terms of the partners working together

and the projects

- Being mindful of the ethics and different contexts within each

partner's communities / country

- Being mindful that each group/organisation / community is

working at different stages and this will affect the design and

delivery of the approach

Future ideas:

There was a strong desire to consider what might happens next.

Erasmus + opens again in 2015 and looks like a possible funding

source. In moving forward it was recognised that the actual process

of partnership can benefit from being facilitated by agencies outside

the project delivery partners.

70

The following areas were mentioned as possible interests:

- The experience of young women who are socially isolated or

excluded for a variety of reasons

- Trans-generational programmes that look at traditional arts

and crafts and connect older people with younger ones.

- The Irish/Italian connection.

- Exploring other forms of communication, not just verbal.

- Could the project be showcased at some of the local festivals

in the future?

- The experience of the stranger – why does a host community

'estrange ' a subsection of the community and for what

purpose?

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Links to related organisations and projects

www.healingthroughremembering.org Focus on the ethics and principles of storytelling.

www.belfastfriendshipclub.org

www.thejunction-ni.org Ethical remembering in the context of contested histories.

The Sherazade project:http://www.sheherazade.eu/en/content/sheherazade

UNESCO on storytelling:http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_d/mod21.html

Libera Università dell'Autobiografia- Focus on autobiography, selfwriting and collecting stories: www.lua.it

Rete Teatrale Aretina – A network of professionists of theatre and storytellingwww.reteteatralearetina.it

Archivio dei Diari - An archive that contains more than 7000 autobiographical texts of common peoplewww.archiviodiari.it

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Storytelling and experiences of being “strangers”

STRANGERTHE

www.thestranger.eu