Why Save the Children is recruiting a storyteller to save lives

In April, Save the Children will be embarking on a new approach in delivering frontline emergency services. The launch of the Emergency Health Unit will allow Save the Children to cover a “full spectrum” of services required to save the lives of children and is the star of a new approach in their response to humanitarian disasters. “It’s not that we weren’t doing it — we were doing some elements of it,” Dr. Unni Krishnan, Save the Children Australia's director of the Emergency Health Unit, explained to Devex. “But through the launch of this unit, it is going to be an overall vision and governance strategy to drive this critical piece of work.” The Melbourne-based unit’s primary responsibility will be responding to humanitarian disasters in the Asia Pacific, filling in a gap Krishnan identified through analyzing the capabilities of Australian nongovernmental organizations in responding to disasters in the region. With natural disasters predicted to increase for this area in particular, Krishnan sees the unit as an important and critical asset moving forward to rapidly respond to disasters and save lives. But the unit will also be available to assist with any humanitarian disaster where their expertise is required. “This will be a single, global capability, sending doctors and nurses anywhere in the world where their services are urgently required,” Krishnan said. And part of the unit will be a storyteller. Krishnan is currently recruiting for this position, with applications closing on March 17. She discussed with Devex the importance a storyteller can make in saving lives. Who is a storyteller in a humanitarian setting? NGOs including Oxfam have been recruiting storytellers to work within their communications teams and public affairs units. Their role differs from that of traditional communication experts by focusing on the small-scale impact — to an individual, family or region — to help better communicate their work and improve brand awareness of the NGO. Writing, photography and videography are among the most valuable skillsets in storytellers. It is a role that many organizations are yet to fully comprehend. “I am not sure if our sector, or even the media, gets it right always,” Krishnan said. “It’s finding a balance between the story and the news element.” Save the Children’s storyteller differs as he or she will be a frontline, deployable asset. Krishnan said their storyteller will be actively on the ground and working directly with those providing medical services, as well as the children who are receiving treatment. Organizing phone calls from the comfort of offices in Melbourne is not part of the job description. “Our storyteller will not be doing media or communications work,” Krishnan said. “They will be contributing to a lifesaving mission,” he said. He said their storyteller should be someone who can listen — and go the extra mile to listen. They should be able to engage and influence a local community to seek stories that will stand apart from the rest of the world. They should be able to take great photographs or capture video content to engage audiences in a wider forum. And they should be a team player. “This role will be contributing significantly to a frontline medical team whose purpose is to do the lifesaving work,” Krishnan said. “They are very much part of the frontline team and will be deployable. We would like them to go before or accompany the deployment team.” Why is a storyteller required? The idea of the Emergency Health Unit first surfaced in 2013 when Save the Children took over Merlin, a U.K.-based medical emergency organization. Since then, the unit has been piloted in a range of humanitarian responses — including the recent Ebola outbreaks in Africa and a mass vaccination program in the Democratic Republic of Congo — to test what works and what doesn’t. How to strengthen and tighten supply chains and the importance of partnerships to assist in rapid mobilization of medical workforces were among the lessons learned from early pilot stages that reached more than 700,000 people late last year. Those lessons, said Krishnan, gave the organization the confidence to continue with the unit. But Krishnan also identified storytelling as a missing capability within humanitarian responses — and a role that would enable greater awareness and understanding on emerging humanitarian issues. “This storyteller is going to be a key position,” Krishnan said. “Appropriate information at the appropriate time is a lifesaver. If you look at the whole humanitarian crisis, including the refugee crisis, things happen as a slow burn. There is a moment when a story tips the balance of either the collective compassion of the world or the conscience of the donors.” The success of a storyteller within the Emergency Health Unit could see more storytellers recruited, and Krishnan hopes it can influence how other NGOs respond to humanitarian disasters. “We would like to use this position to influence ideas of communication internally first but this can demonstrate an added value and maybe we hope one day that other agencies will follow,” he said. Linking to calls from Australia’s aid program The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had called for its partners in the Australian aid program to better communicate its programs and impact of aid to help improve public awareness and support. Krishnan sees storytellers as critical for this success, particularly in a humanitarian setting. “We keep monitoring and listening to what is happening within DFAT,” Krishnan explained. “Within the sector over the past 20 years, this question of better communicating work comes up again and again — that we can do a fantastic communications job, but not necessarily tell the story. If you sit with a group in Iraq talking about the latest survivors of landmines, the information publicly communicated seems to lose something in the process.” Their new storyteller, he said, will communicate in a way that inspire people and create confidence in the aid system. And they will be operating on humanitarian frontlines immediately following the launch of the Emergency Health Unit to demonstrate their value as a lifesaving asset. Want to read more career advice and find job opportunities in global development? Visit our career center for expert advice on how to navigate your job search — all you need is a Devex Career Account to get started.