Ethical Storytelling – Discover how to integrate guidance into practice

As we continue to work towards a future where children and adolescents affected by HIV can survive and thrive, we must ensure that the ways in which we share their experiences is done with integrity, respect and with their permission.

The stories we tell and how we tell them are evolving. We need to find new ways of evoking empathy and action, while at the same time celebrating the agency of people experiencing poverty and exclusion.  Appreciating them as whole people, not defined by their vulnerability. Supporting them to tell their own stories. And protecting their anonymity from the legacy of identification posed by digital media.

The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS has developed some guidance on how to put ethical storytelling into practice. It is intended to support everyone we work with – our members, ambassadors, fellow advocates, governments, donors, and civil society organisations. Please use it and share it with others on social media by downloading our social media toolkit here.

This guidance was created with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and in consultation with young people and caregivers living with HIV from around the world.

It includes how to:

• Ensure people with lived expertise and those delivering services on the frontline are represented and heard.
• Centre people with lived expertise and those delivering services on the frontline in the communication design and decision making.
• Shift funding to more direct support for community-based organisations in order to put them in the driving seat.

We welcome your views and feedback on this working document. Please contact Ashton Josephs, Communications Adviser to the Coalition for more information. Email: Ashton.Josephs@childrenandhiv.org