Find out all about NABUUR Storytelling - and get started here!
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Welcome NABUUR storytellers!
In this space, you'll get a chance to learn how to write a NABUUR story, and also be able to pick and choose stories that you'd like to write.
While in your travels on the NABUUR.com website, if you see a story in development or anything else that catches your eye, let us know here too (even if you don't have time or plan to write on that particular story - we'll find someone else to take it up!). And from time to time, we'll also suggest stories and assign them to those interested in writing them.
Below is a brief how-to of NABUUR storytelling (also available as download attached to this post).
Where to find the stories?
The number of Villages and projects on NABUUR.com is expanding quickly (see here) - and so are the corresponding stories!
Stories can be found just about anywhere in a NABUUR Village: in the News tab; in the Image gallery; or in the discussion threads in the project room... If you're unsure if something will make a good story, post your suggestion in this thread and we'll help you out.
You can also find stories in the general NABUUR news tab here.
When writing a NABUUR story, please follow this format
- Each story starts with a picture.
- Each story has the name of the Village and the country mentioned.
- Each story has a catchy title, referring to the result.
- Please upload it to the news section (see how-to below).
- A NABUUR volunteer will be notified and edit the story (if needed).
- Once the editing is complete, we'll publish the story (crediting you, of course).
Please note: Stories don't necessarily have to be a certain length. If your story is featured on the NABUUR blog and it's a bit on the longer side, we'll be happy to post the story as a multi-part.
Content
Each story has the following structure:
1. The issue, the situation in the community as it was prior to the Village joining NABUUR.
2. Details of the the "result", including the process, and the role the online volunteers (Neighbours) played in it.
3. The changes/improvements brought on by the result.
Interviews
You may also want to interview a couple of the neighbours and the local representative. If you need help in getting in touch with them, let me know. (An idea would be to post a message in the discussion thread telling them you'll be covering their story; or to send them a private message to initiate the conversation.)
Who can help you write the stories?
If you need more details on a development or would like to clarify information in your story research, don't hesitate to contact the Local Representative of the Village, the Facilitator or the Neighbours. They're there to help - and expect to be contacted. If you'd like assistance in making this contact, let us know.
What do you do when you've finished writing a story?
The storytelling group and process will be as transparent as possible. When you're done writing your story:
Your story will show up in the respective village, as well as in the story section of the NABUUR News tab. We'll also use some of the stories for our blog, as well as other social network platforms, like Twitter and the NABUUR Facebook group.
To upload your story to the news section:
1. Click the News tab of the storytelling group.
2. Under the 'Create Content' heading box, click 'Create News.'
3. Fill in the following fields of the form: Title of the story, location, the teaser, the body, and upload a picture of the village corresponding to the story. (We'll worry about the other fields :))
4. Click Submit at the bottom of the page to save your story.
Ready to start?
Feel free to browse the Villages on your own. You can find a list here towards the bottom of the page. Once you click on the link leading to a country location, you'll get the list of Villages in that country - as well as a description of their project.
Another option is to do a keyword search for Villages that match your interests or preference (i.e. Education; Women's Rights; HIV/AIDS).
Once you pick a story, please post in this discussion thread. We'll keep track of who is writing what.
Alternatively, if you wish to only be assigned stories, let us know!
Need some examples before plunging in?
Attached is a storybook compiled last year. Feel free to download it and get a feel for a NABUUR story. We hope you enjoy it!
Find stories in these countries:
Africa
Burundi | Cameroon | DR of the Congo | Gambia | Ghana | Kenya | Madagascar | Mali | Morocco | Nigeria | Rwanda | Senegal | Sierra Leone | South Africa | Tanzania | Uganda | Zambia
Asia
Bangladesh | Cambodia | China | India | Nepal | Sri Lanka | Tibet
Latin America
Thank You for joining us - we're really looking forward to reading your stories and sharing them with everyone else on NABUUR.com and beyond!
Attached files:
Project: Storytelling for NABUUR Villages
Hi Romina!
I just joined the village of Wakitaka and Maria welcomed me and told me to check a webpage and then we could discuss if i want to write about a story for them!
Debora Alvarez
Last summer, storytelling really started to take off and a great group of writers joined this team to help us tell the world about all the great things going on in the villages.
I wanted to take a moment to touch base with all of you and see if any of you are interested in helping write stories again. As you know, Nabuur is now in the hands of the volunteers so it's up to us to make things happen and keep the momentum going. The members of this group play a really critical role in helping us promote online volunteering as well as the great grassroots development efforts taking place all over at world.
I know of a few villages could use your assistance right now, so if anyone is interested in telling a good story or has a story that needs told, please let us know!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Jennifer
Kapuwai-PACODET would like to give its story to storytellers
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Stanley Okurut
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for bringing up story telling again.
Hi everybody,
If there is somebody out here who would like to help us to write a story about the mosquito net fundraising event we are planning for World Malaria Day in April, please let me know. Ideally, we would need somebody to write a background story that we could post on the fundraising page on betterplace.org. But also, if there is somebody who likes blogging and would like to help us during April with posting news and little update stories, this would be very welcome.
The main ideas of the discussion can be found here: http://www.nabuur.com/nl/village/wakitaka/project/task/innovative-ways-y...
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Maria
Hi everyone,
This is a good site. I am writing stories at the moment and I would show the link soon when every detail had been put in place.
You may visit the site and send some comment it is still under construction and your input is most welcome.
www.polarcoordinates.wordpress.com
All the best,
Jeremy Ecle
--
..I came that they may have life and that they may have it abundantly..
Hi Jeremy -
Thank you for sharing the link to your blog and for promoting stories from Nabuur villages on it. That's fantastic! Are you busy with developing that blog, or would you be interested in writing stories that we can feature here at Nabuur?
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer
I contacted Romina last fall and started work on a story that for rather bizarre reasons, stalled (thoguh not for want of trying on my part :-) I would be excited to tackle a new story and look forward to hopefully receiving a referral/assignment from you when you have an opportunity.
Many thanks
Kirsti Shields
That would be great Kirsti - you just reminded me I still need to get back to you from your response to my message about the OT issue! Sorry about that! I haven't forgotten, I keep getting distracted.
Would you be willing to contact Maria and/or Stanley to discuss their needs?
Let us know which one you'll be working with so if there are others interested we can get them connected to projects that still have a need.
Thanks for your offer! I'll get back to you soon regarding the OT issue.
Jennifer
Dear Stanley
My name is Kirsti, and I would be delighted to write a story about your project for Nabuur. I'd be grateful for as much information as you can provide about the background to your work, and the particular story you wish me to share with our readership. Is there a particular event or achievement that you would like me to focus on reporting? Once I have a better sense of what you would like me to focus on, I will come back with more specific questions, of course. Thank you, and I look forward to working with you as we move forward with this.
Sincerely
Kirsti Shields
Follow Africans it’s very import that we preserve our environment by planting billions of trees. I’m very much aware that most of us Africans use firewood and charcoal as a source of fuel. On African continent we are millions of people who have different challenges like diseases, famine, poor roads, illiteracy, child mortality, lack of factories and industries and poor health facilities. If Africa is to ask for aid let it be about very important things which we Africans cannot afford. Things like Machinery, Medicine and latest technology but not planting trees.
When you keep on helping someone in almost everything, that person will become very lazy and even forget everything about his responsibilities. He will soon turn that good gesture into his right and a duty for whoever is helping. Some of the countries which are helping Africa have poor soils, bad climate like in winter season but they manage to feed themselves on top of feeding very many communities here in Africa. Why should we keep on begging for food when God gave us the best climate in the whole world and blessed us with good fertile soils. This is a shame! Why should we die of famine? Instead of people who have bad climate begging for food from us it’s us who are begging food from them. How can God be happy with us? Instead of us using all the resources God gave us for the development of Africa, we are busy destroying everything. We are busy fighting each other, creating more conflicts, importing more guns instead of tractors ,harassing brothers & sisters, the rich exploiting the poor, when shall we ever be tired of fighting and chaos? We must remember that God is watching while other continents are rightly despising us! Most of the animals in national parks are more united and living in harmony than some of the communities in Africa. There are no animals which have ever sat and planned to kill the same animals of their specie but what is happening here in Africa with our enlightened men & women? Even animals in our forests are more worried of us than anything else. How many innocent elephants have we killed in our forests? How many innocent birds have we denied habitat and survivor by destroying their habitats?
It’s very unfortunate that Africa has betrayed God. God gave us life but we are busy destroying it. How many innocent lives have we destroyed in uncalled for conflicts on African continent? God created the Garden of Eden for us with all species of plants and animals. How many species are facing extinction because of our carelessness and encroachment? How many trees are we cutting everyday without caring about the replacement? God gave us fresh water bodies, swamps, lakes, rivers, streams and springs how much are we caring for them. We are busy reclaiming the swamps and dumping toxic materials in our water bodies even water levels are going down in some of our lakes. Some of our rivers and springs have dried up. What are we waiting for, AID?
I’m appealing for support from every God fearing person to support my efforts of:
Compelling the government of the Republic of Uganda to make Uganda the greenest country in the whole world by planting trees in every part of Uganda.
1) Plant fruits on both sides of all the roads in Uganda
2) extend electricity to all rural areas of Uganda and make it affordable for the poor communities.
3) plant trees on all bare mountains in Uganda
4) regulate the cutting down of trees on private farms
5) compel local leaders in Uganda to provide the number of all trees to a national data centre at least twice a year so that we can know how many trees we need for fuel each year without hurting our environment.
4) to make it mandatory for every Ugandan who is five years and above to plant at least 24 trees each year
5) to use government security agencies to protect all public trees on public land from being cut anyhow
6) to secure a government nursery garden in every county in Uganda where to raise tree seedlings.
Please let us wake up from the deepest sleep! Let us shake off the laziness, let us start moving forward, let us reclaim our African pride, let us all join our hands to save God’s Creation. The young and the old, the poor and the rich, the educated and the illiterate, the short and the tall, the light skinned and the black, politicians, Religious leaders, The traditional leaders, every human soul of African this is the time! This is our African responsibility to restore God’s Creation which are responsible for destroying. We can’t wait an longer .GOD TAKE AWAY OUR BEGGING CULTURE, DAY DREAMING, IRRESPONSIBILITY,TIME WASTAGE,LAZINESS AND ALL OTHER WEAKNESSES. LET AFRICA RISE AND SHINE. GIVE US PRIDE. IN GOD’S NAME, I PRAY.
My trees: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwiinederrick/sets/72157624907712536/detail...
My recent photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwiinederrick/sets/72157625084914275/detail...
My photos on Uganda: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwiinederrick/sets/72157625251551506/detail...
The films i made on Uganda: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mwiine+Derrick&aq=f
More photos of mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwiinederrick/archives/date-taken/2010/05/2...
Hi Derrick
Welcome to Nabuur! Those are great pictures.
There are several villages on Nabuur who share your interest in tree planting, agriculture and environmental protection. You may like to get in contact with some of them to share ideas.
Nakaliro http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/nakaliro-0
Butikiro http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/butikiro
Kapuwai http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/kapuwai
Nabitende http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/nabitende
Also check out the Sustainable Agriculture group http://www.nabuur.com/en/group/sustainable-agriculture
Mary
I have several story leads that are waiting to be written - if anyone in the group is interested, please let me know!
Looking forward to getting this group active again!
Jennifer