Digital Stories
We all have stories to tell about our lives. Through sharing and listening to such stories, we come to know each other, our communities, our world, and ourselves. Stories can inspire us, educate us, and move us deeply. As a result of being touched by someone else’s story, we make connections between their life history and our own. When it comes to confronting complex social issues, these connections can enable us to bridge the vast differences that often divide us and instead act with wisdom, compassion, and conscience.

Sonke Gender Justice and the Center for Digital Storytelling’s Silence Speaks project are working together to enable men and women affected by violence and HIV and AIDS to share their stories. Through an intensive, participatory workshop process, we are bringing people together to speak out in digital format. Our hope is to deepen existing conversations about gender norms and the spread of these twin epidemics by highlighting every-day voices of courage, survival, and action.

View the stories.

Learn more about the workshop process.

what can digital stories accomplish?

Stereotyped representations of men, women, and the realities of gender-based violence abound in popular media. The Sonke digital stories offer an alternative vision, one that emphasizes the importance of reflection, hope, and a commitment to social change. Some of the stories are raw testimonials about survival; others challenge misperceptions about men and masculinity and offer examples of the role both men and women are playing in confronting gender inequality and other forms of injustice.

By exploring the personal life histories of men and women who are taking a stand against violence and exposing its connection to the spread of HIV and AIDS, the stories are a crucial tool in Sonke’s work. Activists are screening them with careful facilitation across South Africa, as a way of educating local communities, training service providers, inspiring policymakers, and promoting sustained community action.

thanks

Special thanks to the International Organization for Migration and the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa, who generously contributed stories to this online collection.