Description: Group photo of participant, committee, and facilitators of the Documentation and Storytelling Workshop in Mombasa, Kenya on November 20, 2024 (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
To enhance the capacity of partners in documenting JISRA program activities and success stories, Faith to Action Network organized a Documentation and Storytelling Workshop for local partners implementing the JISRA program. The workshop, attended by 23 participants, was held over four days, from November 16 to 20, 2024, in Mombasa, Kenya. Participants included representatives from their programs team, communications, and M&E teams, the local partner from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. The workshop covered topics such as case story packaging, success story, story of change, and structured technical brief and report.
Description: The forum of Documentation and Storytelling Workshop in Mombasa, Kenya on November 16, 2024 (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
This workshop covers a variety of topics, including case study writing, success stories, change stories, and structured reporting. As part of the training preparation, participants are asked to prepare materials, which include a case study (2 pages) explaining the methodology or approach used, a success story with three relevant photos, field photos as samples, and a 1-2 minute video showcasing the results of work or a specific success story. These materials will be reviewed by consultants before the workshop and will serve as the foundation for the training. There are four communication expert consultants facilitating this activity: Bill Philip Okaka, Joyce Orawo, Leonard Wambiya, and Hezekiah Bundeh.
Description: The team from Indonesia participating in of the Documentation and Storytelling Workshop in Mombasa, Kenya on November 16-20, 2024 (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
The team from Indonesia participating in this workshop consists of Muhammadiyah and Fatayat NU West Java, as local partners in the JISRA (Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action) program, coordinated by the Faith to Action Network consortium. The JISRA program implemented by Muhammadiyah promotes interfaith harmony through an environmental approach, known as the Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah program. Since 2021, this program has been carried out by Muhammadiyah in four regions: Pontianak (West Kalimantan), Ternate (North Maluku), Surakarta (Central Java), and Banyuwangi (East Java). Four delegates from Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah had the opportunity to attend this event. They are Ahsan Hamidi (Eco Bhinneka Activist), Usman Mansur (Regional Manager of Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah Ternate), Lia Kharisma Saraswati (Regional Staff of Eco Bhinneka Nasyiatul Aisyiyah Banyuwangi), and Dzikrina Farah Adiba (Communication and Partnership Manager of Eco Bhinneka).
Series of Activities
At the first day of training, the participant learned about best practices in documentation, best practices in storytelling, snack messaging, and the importance of setting an agenda, managing time, creating mind maps, and using feedback to enhance documentation and storytelling. The Best Practices in Documentation which emphasize that the documentation process should be clear, concise, consistent, and incorporate good visual elements, such as photos, diagrams, or quotes. At the Best Practices in Storytelling session, the facilitator shared that the audience mapping is key to effective storytelling. It is important to consider who the audience for the documentation and storytelling is, so that the material prepared is targeted, such as for donors, stakeholders, religious leaders, and other communities. Then we also learn about the concept of Snack Messaging, where information is delivered briefly with appealing visuals, as people tend to remember what they see. The participant also learned the importance of setting an agenda, managing time, and creating mind maps in writing to avoid writer’s block and stay focused on the message we want to convey, ensuring the writing stays on track. Using feedback to enhance documentation and storytelling is also crucial to understand what works well and what needs improvement for more effective management in the future.
Description: Bill Okaka, the facilitator of the Workshop, explained about the positive propaganda. (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
At the second day of training, the participant learned how to create an outline for Story of Change. They were given the opportunity to structure ideas for the flow of the writing, from a catchy title, challenges, initiatives, key insights, outcomes, lessons learned, conclusion, and even propaganda elements. They also learned the technique of positive propaganda, which involves engaging influential people in each of our activities and publicizing them through social media and press releases. These influential people can include mayors, academics, religious leaders, and interfaith youth.
To enhance the skill of the participant, the facilitator gave assignment to the participant per day. The first day of training, the assignment about the technical brief of the program, success story, social media content, and the short video. The second day of training the assignment are practice to write down the success story with a study case and propaganda game method, and 10 caption from AI tweet generator.
Description: The participant per each country explained the condition of FORB through a picture drawn on a piece of paper. (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
At the third day of training, the participant practice to write report, technical brief, and abstract effectively. To write report, it must be at least not more than 2 pages, and contained 5W 1H component: what, when, why, who, where, and how. Then to write a technical brief, they should make sure that the structure are: tittle, photo, abstract, introduction, the approach, results (include photos and graphs where applicable), factors facilitating success, challenges in implementation, next frontier, conclusion, and recommendation. Each of country do their presentation on technical brief. After presentation, the next session is writing abstract. An abstract briefly reports the purpose and results of the research/implementation, so that readers can clearly understand what is discussed in the paper. An abstract typically consists of 100 – 300 words, allowing readers who may be interested in a longer work to quickly decide whether it is worth their time to read.
Description: Bill Okaka, the facilitator of the Workshop, explained the example of a good photo attached for the success story. (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
At the fourth day of training, the session are material of Media Law and Ethics, and practice to writing and submitting the abstract to a “call for abstract” event on a conference in each country. The key areas of media law are universal rights to the freedom of speech and the press, and its limitations, privacy law, copyrights law, libel and defamation, access to information, and broadcasting regulations. Media ethics principles are understanding the role of professional codes, importance of verifying information and presenting facts faithfully, and responsibility to correct errors and disclose conflict of interest. When practice to write abstract, the participant tried to use the online AI text generator. First, we copy our technical brief, then they paste it the online AI text generator, and ask the AI to create an abstract from it. Then they re-correct the result and put the name of the authors. After the abstract ready to submit, they search the conference event, and submit the abstract there.
Description: Joyce Orawo, the facilitator of the Workshop, accompanied the workshop process for the Indonesian team. (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
In all the practice process, all the facilitators joined and sat in the participant’s desk, and check per participant, to make sure each of participant following the workshop flow, and understood well about the material and practical assignment. After the session in each day, the facilitator asked the feedback on ‘how is the training is going and what need to be improved’ to all participant. They noted it, and share it to the class on the next day just before the session be started. The feedback really helped to improve the more effectiveness way to the workshop. On the last day of the training, the facilitators guided participants in writing their individual follow-up plans, where each participant was asked to produce a case study, success story, technical brief, and create a short video, along with a timeline for the process.
Impressions and Expectations of Participants from Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah
“The materials presented were very good, and with the practice sessions, everything became easier to understand and apply, especially for creating reports, success stories, and storytelling,” said Lia Kharisma Saraswati, Regional Staff of Eco Bhinneka Nasyiatul Aisyiyah Banyuwangi. “I want to focus more on storytelling, especially now that I understand its structure. I hope that what we have done can be utilized and applied in other areas. We also hope to publish the impact of what we have achieved,” she continued.
Meanwhile, Usman Mansur, Regional Manager of Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah Ternate, expressed his excitement about the opportunity to participate in this workshop. “I gained experience, new knowledge, and a broader network. We were able to meet with fellow JISRA program implementers from other regions,” said Usman. “After this, I will teach and practice this new knowledge in my region and share it with the PEKA (Partners of Eco Bhinneka) community in Ternate. I hope we will be able to create better news to share with the public,” he added.
Description: Usman Mansur, Regional Manager Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah Ternate, had the opportunity to present the success story of the JISRA Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah program in Ternate to the workshop participants. (Doc. @ecobhinneka)
Follow-up Plans
Dzikrina Farah Adiba, Communication and Partnership Manager of Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah, hopes that with the skills gained, the Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah team will be able to write more impactful and easily understood reports in the future, and also be able to determine the target audience for their writing to ensure its relevance to the intended stakeholders. “We want to ensure that the writing of success stories follows the structure we have been trained on, such as using engaging titles, presenting challenges, initiatives, key insights, results, and highlighting lessons learned,” she said. Moving forward, she hopes the knowledge and skills gained from this workshop can be applied in writing the JISRA Annual Report 2024 and future publications.
Meanwhile, Ahsan Hamidi, an activist at Eco Bhinneka, emphasized the importance of documenting all small successes. “We need to frequently and consistently record all the small successes we achieve in Surakarta, Banyuwangi, Ternate, and Pontianak. We must be able to write success stories from the field, even if they are small, but they have a significant impact,” he said. “There are many success stories, but sometimes we are not fully aware of them,” he continued. He suggested that the writing skills of Eco Bhinneka Muhammadiyah team need to be further trained so they can develop the ability to write about success stories and the changes that have been successfully implemented in these four regions.
(Written by: Dzikrina Farah Adiba)
