Discover the stories only you can tell.
The Hidden Story Project brings together thoughtful conversation, storytelling practice, community partnership, and multilingual technology to help people discover, shape, and preserve the stories that matter to them.
The first Hidden Story Project pilot begins this October, working with students, teachers, elders, and local partners to support stories in both Ewe and English.
Explore the PilotThe experiences that shape us can become stories only we can tell.
Families and communities are shaped quietly, through relationships, decisions, traditions, challenges, laughter, and the ordinary moments that stay with us.
Within these experiences are stories that carry meaning, identity, humor, and wisdom. Yet we do not always recognize our own experiences as stories worth telling.
A thoughtful question or conversation can help someone discover the story within an experience they've carried for years. Story Discovery creates that space, and lets each storyteller decide what happens next.
"We have stories about animals... but our own story—something that has happened to me—you don't have that one."JulianaCommunity elder · Adaklu Kodzobi
Juliana's words helped clarify the heart of this work: personal stories are already present in every community. The opportunity is to create the conversations and conditions that help people recognize and shape the stories only they can tell.
From lived experience to a story preserved.
Story Discovery begins with people, not technology. A thoughtful question, careful listening, and conversation bring the story into view.
Technology is the bridge, not the focus. It supports stories across languages while the storyteller, human connection, and cultural context remain at the center.
Your story. Your voice. Your choice.
The storyteller decides what to tell, what to preserve, and what to share. A story doesn't have to be made public to matter.
Adaklu Kodzobi, Ghana
The Hidden Story Project's first pilot is taking shape through relationships and conversations already underway. Community elders, teachers, students, local partners, storytelling practitioners, and technology and language collaborators are helping shape the work before the visiting team arrives.
In October 2026, those conversations continue in person through Story Discovery Workshops and field-testing of multilingual technology built to support stories in both Ewe and English. Local collaborators are helping build that technology. It supports the process; people, relationships, and storyteller choice stay at the center.
Stories that participants choose to preserve can also become part of bilingual Story Book collections, in both Ewe and English, made as e-books and bound copies for the community. Joining a collection is always the storyteller's choice.
Listen and prepare
Zoom conversations, relationship-building, and collaborative planning.
Discover and learn
Story Discovery Workshops, multilingual field testing, and optional community sharing.
Preserve and reflect
Storyteller-directed preservation, optional bilingual Story Book e-books and bound community copies, evaluation, improvements, and local decisions about what comes next.
Different strengths. One shared commitment.
No single organization can do this work alone. Each partner contributes a distinct part of the pilot.
The Hidden Story Project
Connects the people, partnerships, ethics, operations, and learning that hold the pilot together.
TomorrowLabs
Develops the multilingual technology and preservation tools supporting the pilot.
Visit TomorrowLabs ↗Campfire Tales
Brings Story Discovery practice, thoughtful questions, listening, and storytelling craft.
Visit Campfire Tales ↗Friends of Adaklu
Brings longstanding relationships, local knowledge, and community connection.
Visit Friends of Adaklu ↗PROOF: Media for Social Justice
Provides charitable oversight and supports responsible stewardship of donated funds.
Visit PROOF: Media for Social Justice ↗Ghanaian language expertise
Partners supporting Ewe language, cultural context, and careful human review will be named as agreements are finalized.
Together, we can move from conversation to action.
Your support will help bring the people, preparation, workshops, multilingual technology, local participation, documentation, and post-pilot learning together in Adaklu Kodzobi.
Your support helps fund
- Story Discovery Workshops and materials
- Local participation, language expertise, and coordination
- Multilingual technology development and field testing
- Travel and in-country pilot operations
- Optional bilingual Story Book collections in Ewe and English, as e-books and bound copies for the community
- A local videographer helping create a short documentary
- Documentation and evaluation
This is an early pilot. We're building and testing the approach with community members and partners, learning what works, and deciding what should stay local.
Interested in joining us in Ghana yourself?
A small group of travelers will experience the storytelling exchange in Adaklu Kodzobi and continue their own story discovery journey in Cape Coast. This trip is independently paid for by participating travelers and isn't funded by pilot donations above.
Explore the Ghana journeyQuestions, ideas, or want to help?
We'd love to hear from you, whether you have a question about the pilot, want to explore a partnership, or just want to say hello.
Email us directly at hello@hiddenstoryproject.org, or send a message using the form below.