Volunteering: Storytelling in Africa

storytellers

Volunteers Nerys and Brenda documenting Simakakata Community School in Zambia

LearnAsOne is a charity which funds schools in Africa. We strongly believe that our donors deserve to see exactly how their money is spent.

So we share stories, photos and videos from every community we work with and introduce supporters to the children whose lives they are changing.

Photojournalists, camera ops and writers

This creates an ongoing need for experienced (i.e. really good) storytellers to join us on our trips to Africa to document our projects.

We are looking for a photographer, journalist and camera op to help uncover and tell community stories in a very raw form, plus follow-up with the people we met on our previous trips.

Pictures and stories need to be uploaded onto our blog and twitter in as close to real-time as possible, with rawly edited video to follow a week or two after the trip. Please take a look at this photo story and the work of volunteers Adam and Brenda to see the type of stories we have told so far.

These opportunities are voluntary and will need to be self-funded.

Next trip

We are currently planning a 2 week trip to Zambia in April or May 2011. Costs will be no more than £1,500 if you are flying from the UK.

To apply:

Please send an email to our founder Steve at [email protected] with the following information:

  • A brief paragraph about your experience.
  • Good stories need to be told. Please include a paragraph about how you can help to share the stories you discover. Finding new ways to generate awareness is just as important as the story itself.
  • And please show us your storytelling skills as follows…

Photographers
A link to your portfolio including a photo series which tells a story.

Journalists
A link to articles you’ve had published. Please send me something that tells a story.

Video camera ops/editor
A link to a documentary or storytelling piece you have filmed and edited yourself. Length is not important.

If you are an editor and wish to help shape the films when we return home please get in touch too.

Edit: These positions are very competitive so if you want to apply I cannot stress how important it is to gear your application around storytelling and to include some ideas for content distribution. Thank you!