Learning across borders

Why Fellow Mike Amos-Simpson believes that storytelling can transform the lives of young people in both the developed and the developing worlds

How can you provide effective help to underprivileged children when faced with the challenges of distance and limited resources? This was the question that Fellow Mike Amos-Simpson struggled with after pledging his support to a group of orphaned children in Malawi, and the reason why he set up the not-for-profit organisation 'stories4change'.

When Amos-Simpson took a team of 15 young people from deprived areas of the UK to teach basic English to children in Malawi, he was impressed by both the volunteers' enthusiasm and the Malawians' willingness to learn. Having promised to return within three years, he was keen to offer a more sustainable form of assistance.

"The Malawian children faced two main problems," explains Amos-Simpson. "Firstly, with 200 children of different ages all learning the same lessons, there was no organised division into ability levels. Secondly, the people teaching the children often lacked the skills necessary to help their pupils progress. So we recognised that self-directed learning would be key to long-term support."

Inspired by the sight of his own two children reading aloud to each other, Amos-Simpson decided to set up an organisation that would foster a similar kind of peer-to-peer learning. Stories4change, which he set up at the beginning of this year, gives young people in the UK the opportunity to write, illustrate and publish storybooks that are subsequently used as a teaching resource by children in Malawi. "I wanted to take the pressure off the teachers and help the children develop their language skills through reading and listening," he says.

Amos-Simpson received £850 from the RSA Catalyst fund to purchase the publishing materials and rights necessary to run two pilot schemes, one in Glasgow and one in Newcastle. Each scheme currently involves 14 children aged between 12 and 15 who are assigned roles such as writer, editor, designer and publicist. The aim is to send 50 copies of each published book to two groups of children in Malawi - the Grace Orphan Project and YoMo – along with other teaching materials bought with profits from the book sales.

Students in both countries stand to gain a lot from the project. In the UK, the children producing the book will learn practical skills such as how to write with a particular audience in mind and how to manage a project, while developing their capability to collaborate. In Malawi, Amos-Simpson hopes to inspire the children to improve their fluency in English – which, despite being an official language, is rarely spoken from day to day – and, crucially, to begin telling their own stories.

"Storytelling is important for practical reasons in that it enables children to develop literacy skills even when there aren't enough books to go around," says Amos-Simpson. "It encourages older children to adopt a leadership role, helping to establish a system of peer-to-peer education."

Amos-Simpson has further ambitions for the project. "We've already posted a camcorder, pens, paper and postage stamps to Malawi so that the children can film their activities and correspond with the 'authors' in the UK," he says. "We hope that this will motivate British schools to forge closer links with Malawian orphan projects."

An evaluation of the pilots is helping to create a model scheme for other schools to use and Amos-Simpson is working hard to broaden support. He is already collaborating with two Fellows, one with business expertise and one with experience in the literacy sector. Both are registered with RSA Support, a new online database that enables Fellows to share knowledge and skills with one another.

"We're regularly picking up new volunteers and people who are keen to help us develop the project further," says Amos-Simpson. "The challenge now is to maintain that interest so that we can begin offering a complete programme of activities in both the UK and Malawi."


Get involved

To find out more or to offer your support to the project, please visit the Stories4change website.

RSA Catalyst

RSA Catalyst is a seed funding initiative that helps Fellows from around the world turn great ideas into successful projects with a tangible social benefit. Fellows can share advice and expertise through RSA Skills Bank, a skills bank that they can use to contact Fellows in specific locations, organisations or sectors. To find out more, email Alex Watson, call Alex on +44 (0)20 7451 6856 or visit the RSA Catalyst fund page.