ghanaweb.com · 7 hours ago

Reigniting Storytelling Among Students and Communities in Ghana

In a village in Ghana's Volta Region where children have long been expected to listen rather than speak in the presence of elders, something quietly shifted: the children began asking questions, and the elders leaned in to answer. A partnership between Portland-based Campfire Tales and The Hidden Story Project brought weekly storytelling workshops to students at Adaklu Kodzobi Basic School, teaching them not to invent tales but to recognize the stories already living in their own lives. When fifteen-year-old Noel told his first personal story - about delayed schooling and a dream of farming so that "everyone could eat" - a school garden was approved for him within twenty-four hours. "When we learn to tell our own stories and hear the stories of others around us, we feel seen, and real exchange takes place," said program founder Ryan McAbery, capturing what the initiative revealed not just about storytelling, but about the hunger to be known. The children who began with stories about mangoes and family now stand before their community as Ambassadors, preparing to carry that tradition into neighboring villages - proof that the most durable bridges between generations are built, word by word, in the act of being heard.