Our approach to storytelling

What is ethical storytelling?

Ethical storytelling is described as an approach and mindset honouring strong standards of consent, trust, sensitivity, and transparency as the guiding principles for sharing stories. 

 It prioritises the storytellers as the experts of their narratives and experiences and frames people by their aspirations and contributions rather than their challenges. This approach is conscious of power dynamics and actively pursues a deeper understanding and awareness of historical and cultural sensitivities to avoid harmful, stereotypical narratives.  

“Ethical storytelling is about portraying people and communities in a way that restores the image they have of themselves and the image that the rest of the world can have of them,” said Nuits Balnéaires, a multidisciplinary visual artist in Côte d’Ivoire, whom we have worked with over the last four years. 

Why we tell ethical stories

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author

Unlimit Health strives to tell stories ethically to help dispel misconceptions, challenge stigmas and biases, and encourage understanding rather than reinforcing harmful stereotypes. This means acknowledging the complexities and sensitivities around the stories that we hear from our project participants.  

As an organisation working on parasitic diseases, our project participants are affected by these diseases, some of which are associated with stigmatisation and social exclusion. For instance, female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a parasitic infection that is often misdiagnosed as a sexually transmitted infection due to symptom similarity and lack of awareness. This misdiagnosis can result in women being stigmatised and experiencing domestic violence. 

Telling stories about women at risk of FGS unethically using distorted or oversimplified narratives, sensational language, or imagery will put these women at risk of further stigmatisation in their communities. These shock tactics also lead to emergency responses rather than supporting the development of long-term sustainable solutions toward elimination goals.  

As the global health landscape has changed, not only has the community of practice become more conscious of the need for power shifts and ethical approaches, but audiences are also searching for communications and messaging that steer away from traditional power dynamics and uplift new and diverse voices. 

Read a case study of our approach to ethical storytelling.  

Our commitment to ethical storytelling 

In line with the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) roadmap for 2030, we focused a key pillar of our 2023-28 organisational strategy on facilitating country ownership. This means shifting the power balance to ensure resources are where they need to be – in the hands of countries working to end parasitic disease. It is also about recognising that how we work is just as important as what work we do. Unlimit Health acknowledges our responsibility in sharing broader narratives with our audiences. 

What we have done to date

We signed the dignified storytelling pledge, committing to the following principles:

We integrated these key practices into our content-gathering guidelines

• Safety and avoidance of re-traumatisation  

• • We assess the safety of contributors as part of the planning process, ensuring the safeguarding of children and young people 

• • Facilitate an interview space that is safe and secure, supporting contributors to tell their stories in their own words and without judgement  

• We implement informed consent 

• • We prioritise explaining to contributors how we will use their story, why we are sharing it, what medium(s) we will use, and how long we will store their information 

• • We emphasise their right to withdraw consent at any time and our commitment to honouring their decision. This process supports contributors in owning their stories   

• • We use the FairConsent application, a highly accessible tool to collect transparent and informed consent 

• • We use a digital asset management (DAM) system to securely house digital content, including consent forms, captions, credits, and expiry information 

• We co-create with local talent 

• • We commission creatives from the respective country or region to co-create stories rooted in local realities. We have identified talented creatives in several countries and know they are better suited to gather content because they have a greater understanding of the country and the challenges facing their communities. They also often speak the local language and better understand the power dynamics at play 

• We avoid distorting narratives  

• • We strive to share contributors’ stories in their words, reflecting transparency and being mindful of language 

• • We use positive imagery of our project contributors, avoiding stereotypes that perpetuate narratives of people living in poverty 

• • We do not manipulate images to fit our purposes, instead, we caption and credit our photos to provide context of who and where the photo was taken 

• • We do not use AI-generated images  

• • When writing stories, we are careful with the use of language, avoiding victimisation of our project participants.