A year since joining the team, Communications Officer Nalé Barbieri Pederiva, shares his love for stories and why they matter for diaspora organisations, alongside a new practical guide to storytelling for prosocial action.

The sun was blinding, reflecting on my goose-bumped, perspiring arm… Watching that 1-1 was like leaving a glass on the edge of the table, an uneasy balance everyone expected would tip soon. We had been close to scoring for what felt like an eternity, though it was probably five minutes. Everyone in my team was running behind the ball and trying to score to win the elementary school tournament. Everyone but me, who, though playing as a centre back, was too busy narrating the game to the goalkeeper. “We knew right there that he would be a communicator,” my parents love to tell whenever they meet someone new in my life.

While that football game aged eight might have been the clearest moment for my parents, my passion for storytelling has been there all along. From bedtime tales, radio dramas and TV series to songs, movies, board and videogames, the fascination for a good story has accompanied me throughout my life and remains a fire I have never stopped feeding, and now not only in my free time.

Though most often associated with art and entertainment, storytelling is also an essential part of how we communicate and connect with other people. It is there just as much when talking to your friend as when discussing a project with a colleague. It is also there in the advertisements you see and at your dinner table with your family. That’s the thing with storytelling: once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere.

Today, “storyteller” might not be the title of my degree or on my contract, but it is the core of what I do. In my work with governments, refugee NGOs and now with EUDiF, I constantly search for the right story to tell to help make sense of the world together – and in diaspora engagement, there are so many stories to tell!

Stories are diaspora glue

Since joining EUDiF in May 2025, I have been falling deep into the research rabbit hole of diaspora engagement. I can now confidently say that storytelling is vital for all diasporas. Stories are how we recognise ourselves as part of a diaspora. They are how memories travel across borders, how identities are shaped and how belonging is negotiated between “here” and “there”, wherever those might be.

For organisations, stories not only link members, but also play a central role in achieving objectives. They can frame issues, help audiences understand complex topics and humanise statistics. Using a story can allow an audience to feel the impact of an activity on the people involved. Stories are what an audience will remember most from any meeting, whether a press conference, a community gathering or a conversation with a donor.

My belief in the power of stories is what led me to create “Storytelling basics for diaspora organisations”.

How to use the guide

The guide offers building blocks to help make stories more intentional and more impactful. It is born from a mixture of my experience using stories to generate change and our collaboration in 2025 with the Migration Youth and Children’s Platform and diaspora youth expert Gilberto Morishaw to train more than 25 youth diaspora advocates in how to use storytelling in policy spaces, skills which they used during their participation at the Global Forum on Migration and Development and beyond.

This document is intended as a first step in what I hope becomes a powerful daily practice for diaspora organisations. Storytelling is like construction, it requires good foundations, structure, cement and polish. The guide explains each of these elements and provides a template to help apply a strategic approach to storytelling focused on purpose and audience and grounded in human experience.

In an era when narratives about migration often exclude the protagonists, my hope is that this guide emboldens diaspora organisations to cherish their stories and share them on their own terms.

Looking for some inspirational diaspora stories? Stories are abundant on our website, so grab your favourite warm drink and let curiosity guide you through our news section.