Speaking Powerfully: Storytelling

Why tell moving stories? Because moving stories captivate us and reach us at the core of our being. They can make us laugh and make us cry. Let’s use a brief example to demonstrate why moving stories are so powerful:

“UNICEF recently reported that, for the first time in history, the number of children dying each year of largely preventable causes fell below 9 million in 2008. However that still means over 24,000 children die each day from preventable illnesses like diarrhea, pneumonia, measles, and malaria.”

Here is the second example:

“My years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger taught me many things — some of them profound, and some of them tragic. One of the tragic lessons I learned was that the number of parents who experience the pain of needlessly losing a child is not equally shared around the globe. This lesson became particularly poignant the day that Issa, my blacksmith friend and neighbor, walked into my mud hut with panic and shock written on his face. ‘Please come and see my baby ‘ she’s sick and doesn’t even know who I am,’ he managed to say. When I arrived, the beautiful baby was listless, but breathing. As I watched her and stroked her black hair I could see the life ebbing out of her, her breathing slowing until it stopped. I immediately crouched on the floor, put two fingers on her sternum and tried frantically to breath life back in to her, as Biba and Issa looked on in horror. I knew there wasn’t a doctor or a health facility for miles that could help me, so I just continued working on her. The infant finally expired in my arms and Biba wailed. I never found out why she died. But I knew that she never really had the same chance to live a full life as those who have access to vaccinations, clean water, and medical facilities. She was one of the 10 million preventable child deaths that year, and I will never forget that day.”

So both examples are powerful, but the second one puts a face on the problem in a way that is gut-wrenching and elicits an emotional reaction. This is what moving stories do; they take something that could seem abstract and impersonal, like a statistic, and turn it into something very personal and emotional. A moving story softens the listener and appeals to their humanity in a way that facts alone cannot. For this reason, it is hard really to find anyone who does not appreciate a moving story.

We use moving stories to help community members, the media, and members of Congress really be touched by both the problems of poverty and their solutions. In a face-to-face meeting, the Northern Virginia RESULTS group told their member of Congress, Jim Moran, a story from the New York Times. The story was about a 6-year-old boy sold into indentured servitude for $20 per year by his parents because they couldn’t afford to feed him. They went on to explain how microcredit would allow parents like these to keep their children at home. As they told the story, Representative Moran moved forward in his chair and said, “Wow, I need more of these. This puts a human face on it. I will be speaking to 1,000 women at a conference next week and I want to use this story.” At that moment, the RESULTS activists became Representative Moran’s speechwriters in a way.

Stories can be memorized, like we do with laser talks, or if they are longer, we can read them to our audience. Here is an example of a story that volunteers might read to a member of Congress, an editorial or news writer, a radio show audience, or community members:

“I want to introduce you to the reality of two vastly different countries,” said Colette Hernandez to an audience at the launch of the Campaign for Children’s Health Care. “One, where parents can have peace of mind and confidence in raising and providing for their children. The second, where I, as a parent, must constantly worry about my children’s health, choosing between paying for health care and food. Can you imagine denying health care to your child who is in pain?”

A social worker, mother of two, and RESULTS volunteer from Topeka, Kansas, Hernandez knows first-hand that these two “countries” exist side by side here in the United States. She didn’t have any health insurance when her 8-year-old daughter Emily’s behavior began to change. Over a period of time, Emily went from an A student to getting bad grades, and she started acting out in school. They took her to a psychologist for numerous tests, which were inconclusive. It was later discovered that Emily was having seizures. They didn’t realize it earlier because she was having them only at night. Finally, Collette fell asleep with Emily one night and woke with her daughter was having a seizure. It took two years, numerous doctors and tests, and a pile of medical bills before Emily was diagnosed with epilepsy. Fortunately, Hernandez was able to enroll in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program ( or SCHIP), which has since covered Emily’s ongoing medical costs.

Clearly, SCHIP is providing a crucial safety net for families in a time of slow economic growth and eroding employer-based coverage. The number of uninsured children dropped from 11.1 million in 1998 to 7.9 million in 2004 because of SCHIP. Since then, however, the number of uninsured kids has been growing. Some 2,000 children join the ranks of the uninsured every day!

So you see, Colette’s story illustrates the problem and the solution, providing both numbers and a human element that we can all relate to.

Your members of Congress, like most people, remember stories that move them. Learn and recite the ones that RESULTS provides, and find and create your own powerful stories. Stories are the key to changing hearts and minds, and a critical tool in our advocacy.