Dare and Inspire: Storytelling to Power Positive Change
How one KM Champion leveraged the KM Training Package to reach people living with disabilities in Tanzania
Knowledge SUCCESS East Africa KM Champion, Fatma Mohamedi, recently shared how she has used the knowledge management (KM) training modules in the KM Training Package for Global Health Programs in her organization’s work in providing health education to people living with disabilities in Tanzania. Read on to learn more about Fatma’s journey from being introduced to KM to now incorporating KM approaches into her work.
“Every day we share knowledge, we talk knowledge, we raise knowledge…Everything that we do in our life, whether it’s at work, at home, anything we do, is concerning knowledge. So when knowledge management came to me, I was very, very interested and I said, yes, let me join the team so that I can see what is really going on and how I can be benefited.”
Fatma Mohamedi from the Dare and Inspire Foundation, was introduced to the systematic process of knowledge management (KM) through the KM Champions initiative, started under the Knowledge SUCCESS project in East Africa. Fatma joined a KM training and she immediately was excited about the potential it held for her and her organization, which provides health education to people living with disabilities in Tanzania.
“We have been telling them [people living with disabilities] about taking care of themselves and making sure they know their rights on family planning and SRHR [sexual and reproductive health and rights]. As you know, this group, especially in our countries, have been left behind.”
Fatma recognized that her organization’s work could benefit from KM after becoming a KM Champion and being introduced to the KM Training Package for Global Health Programs. The KM Training Package is an online training resource with numerous ready-to-use training modules on KM processes and approaches, including the foundational Building Better Programs guide and Checklist for Assessing Equity in Knowledge Management Initiatives, that Knowledge SUCCESS manages and updates. The website receives nearly 10,000 pageviews on an annual basis.
At first, Fatma was worried that the training modules would be ambiguous and difficult to use and apply in her work. However, she found the KM Training Package materials to be “very informative, easy, and helpful because you see the ‘how’.”
One KM training module on storytelling seemed particularly relevant to a challenge that Fatma was facing at her organization. She felt stuck on how to tell her own story and how to share others’ stories, particularly those living with disabilities, but knew there was power in sharing personal stories to inspire someone else and benefit the greater society. She also recognized that conveying information in a story format makes it easier for the audience or listener to understand the message.
Fatma used the KM Training Package’s Storytelling module to inform and train others within her organization on this approach, which also benefits the work they do within schools when they talk with students about others who have similar experiences and where they are now.
“And as we are dealing with many people with disabilities, it’s very, very important because when you share a story of someone who has the same situation as them and how they have achieved it, and how they have moved on from there and achieved something, which is good or better … it feels like, okay, I can do it. Like others have done, and I can make it, and it is very possible to do it in any circumstance, regardless where you come from, who you are, what you are doing.”
Fatma found the storytelling materials helpful to herself and her team in honing their message to deliver and inspire the younger generation of people living with disabilities to live fully and go for their dreams.
“And that is why our organization is called Dare and Inspire. So you have to do something that will inspire the society, that will inspire yourself, will inspire your generation, will inspire everyone around you so that you can do something according to either what you have done or according to what they are going to do. So for us, storytelling is very impactful as it is delivering the message that it is to society.”
Fatma continues to spread the value of KM beyond her organization, as she sees the need to make sure information is freely available and shared with others so that they, too, can benefit from the knowledge. She has been working and recruiting others on the importance of KM in their organization, why they should be using it in their daily activities, and where they can find the KM Training Package materials so their organization can use them.
“I need to spread the word, especially to everyone who is doing organizational work to understand what is knowledge management, how it is important to be included in their activities, how they can use it, and why they should do it daily.”
The KM Training Package has more than 20 training modules that include slide deck presentations, practical examples, sample KM outputs, and other supplementary resources. The materials can be used to deliver KM training sessions to others or boost your KM skills independently, covering a variety of topics including:
KM Road Map
(5-step process, from Assessing Needs and Designing a KM Strategy to Creating and Iterating KM Tools and Techniques to Monitoring and Evaluating them). By following the KM Road Map’s five-step process, you can integrate knowledge management systematically and strategically in global health programs.
Behavioral Sciences for Better KM
Behavioral sciences–the scientific approach to understanding human behavior through both observation and experimentation–can be applied to design better KM solutions with greater impact.
Integrating Equity in KM
How we manage knowledge—and eventually decide how to use it—can affect individuals, families, communities, health systems, and policies. Therefore, paying close attention to equity in KM is important to manage, share, and use knowledge in ways that are fair to all groups.
Learning from Failure
Learning from our professional failures can help us avoid repeating past mistakes in our future work, and sharing our failure experiences with others can help them avoid making the same missteps. This module shares some of the key barriers to sharing failures and ways to address those barriers.
Communities of Practice
Communities of practice (CoPs) promote collaboration and encourage sharing of best practices and lessons learned. This module includes tips on how to create and manage a CoP to achieve knowledge exchange goals.
Documenting Program Experiences
Documentation allows us to use knowledge to inform and improve programs. It also contributes to the evidence base around what works and what does not work, and converts tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge to prevent others from “reinventing the wheel.”
After-Action Reviews
A simple but effective way to document best practices, identify and apply lessons learned, capture diverse perspectives, encourage constructive feedback, and facilitate performance improvement, when completing an event or activity.
“I’m so happy about knowledge management and the packages and the material because there’s so much information. They have changed me.”
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