“We have stories about animals... but our own story—something that has happened to me—you don’t have that one.” ~ Juliana, Community Elder, Adaklu Kodzobi, Ghana

Juliana said those words during one of our first Zoom conversations with elders in Adaklu Kodzobi. In one sentence, she captured exactly why the Hidden Story Project exists.

Our lives are filled with experiences that can become meaningful stories, yet we do not always recognize them that way. Sometimes it takes a thoughtful question, a conversation, or simply another person being curious about our lives to help us recognize the story within an experience we have carried for years.

What We Are Doing

This October, The Hidden Story Project will conduct its first research and development pilot in Adaklu Kodzobi, Ghana. We're raising $25,000 to make it happen.

The conversations have already begun.

Getting Started

We knew we didn't want to arrive in Ghana as strangers, so Hidden Story Project and Campfire Tales began meeting with the community long before our visit. On opposite sides of a Zoom screen, teachers, elders, students, and our team have talked, laughed, asked questions, and shared stories.

We've watched a student discover that an experience from her own life could become a story. We've heard teachers ask if they could participate alongside their students. We've listened as elders began imagining the stories they themselves might want to tell.

And at the end of our calls, we keep hearing some version of the same thing: Come quickly. We are ready.

In Ghana

This October, those conversations become action.

Over eight days, Campfire Tales will lead in-person Story Discovery Workshops with students and adults. Friends of Adaklu, a local university, and the people of Adaklu Kodzobi are helping shape the pilot and bring it to life.

TomorrowLabs is also building the multilingual technology we will field-test in Ghana, exploring how Ewe and English can move more naturally through the storytelling process. The technology supports the experience; the people and their stories remain at the center.

What Success Looks Like

What gets told will always belong to the storyteller. Some stories may remain private. Others may be preserved in both Ewe and English, and some participants may choose to have their stories included in bilingual Story Book collections.

And we'll be learning alongside them: what sparks a memory, what enriches a story, what works across generations and languages, what needs to change, and what the community wants to continue after we leave.

As Charles, Principal at Kodzobi Basic School, told us:

“Success is the continuation of telling our stories.”

Help Us Get There

Your contribution will help fund the Story Discovery Workshops, local coordination and translation, bilingual Story Book collections, documentary filming, technology development and field testing, Playbook for future rollouts, and travel and logistics for 2 people required to conduct the pilot.

Please donate before September 25—and share this campaign with someone who knows the pleasure of hearing a good story, and the even greater pleasure of helping someone discover they have one to tell.

Donations are made to PROOF: Media for Social Justice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and fiscal sponsor of The Hidden Story Project. PROOF retains legal control and discretion over donated funds and will use them to support the Project's approved charitable purposes.