Finding real connection in an ultra-connected world
Using social media to get the voices of refugees and vulnerable people out in the world
I wake up, I turn around, I grab my phone. I open my feed, I scroll, scroll, scroll — #TGIF, #TBT — I know what everyone, including the girl I met in summer camp when I was 12, is up to. I close the first app and open the next. “Today is your 10 year Facebook anniversary!”
I’ve been on this platform for a decade, browsing through hundreds of stories, glancing into people’s lives momentarily. Social media are a powerful tool for connection; they allow us to share our stories. I didn’t realize how much of a difference this could make until two years ago when I began working on a new project: the World Food Programme (WFP) Storytellers.
When the WFP launched this community media project, I joined as an intern. WFP Storytellers gives some of the people WFP helps a training in digital media, empowering them with knowledge and tools so they can share their own stories. The first pilot was in Jordan — we found young Jordanians and Syrian refugees interested and gathered them together with a trainer. With a venue and a platform in place, a movement was born.
At first, the girls in the group giggled at the thought of getting Facebook accounts and posting. They said they had no stories to share — but of course, they did. And once they started realizing they could be heard, the stories came out.
It’s the little things that matter
Throughout the training, we uncovered hidden talents. One of the storytellers turned out to be a great poet: he used the platform to share beautiful poems he wrote to the brother he’d lost. Someone sitting at home, halfway across the world from him, was touched by his story and reached out to let him know how it moved him. These little interactions, the people I met and their stories stuck with me a long time after my internship ended.
After Jordan, the project then grew and was brought to Chad and Uganda, to train Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees. It also went to Guatemala to train people affected by climate change.
Coming back, ready for more
Two years later, I came back to WFP just as they were planning to take the project to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where almost 900,000 Rohingya refugees had fled violence, death and the destruction of their homes in Myanmar. There had been a lot of news coverage about the crisis, but hardly anything spoken directly by the people living this nightmare. That’s why we went to find the storytellers who would share their authentic voices with the world.
Amid torn-down houses and muddy streets, I saw a camp crawling with life. These people were wells of stories. We spoke about the training with some of the youth. The ones who were on social media said that they used these channels to stay in touch with their family members and close friends who had been separated from them. Others said they had anonymous accounts that they used to express their frustrations and stay connected to their communities. Many were excited at the idea of learning the skills and having the platform to share their stories.
We are all equal on social media
I left Cox’s Bazaar with a realization. Whether in a refugee camp, a foreign city, or even just at home, we all have stories inside us waiting to be told, and a strong desire to connect with others. On social media, we are all equal, given the same chance at sharing and being heard. Sometimes we overshare, sometimes we don’t share at all. Sometimes we build personas for ourselves, and sometimes we remain anonymous — but what makes the difference is the chance to be part of something, to be given a platform to tell your own story with your own voice and as seen through your own eyes.
One young Syrian mother I met in Jordan once summed it up by saying, “When you’re a refugee, not many people listen to you. But I want everyone to know my story. I want them to listen. I want to know that someone out there cares about what happened to us.”
