For the past six months the Roshni Storysacks project has been meeting every Tuesday at a local day care centre of Asian elders. The project is a joint initiative between Southampton city libraries and social services, funded by the National Year of Reading.

The aim was to involve the elders in reading partnerships, first sharing their reading experiences with each other, then producing storysacks reflecting the cultural diversity of their stories for use with a younger generation.

We adapted the basic storysack idea (a bag containing a book and props to bring the story to life) to make use of the talent and experience of the elders. There is a strong tradition of oral storytelling in the cultures represented by the Roshni clients, so we videoed them telling stories they remembered from their childhood and used these as the basis for the sacks. Storytelling proved very successful, stimulating memories and providing opportunities for interaction and discussion. One client summed up the group's response in this way: "We all look forward to Tuesdays. It's the time when we can talk and people listen to us. The rest of the week... (at this point she made a 'zipping up' movement across her mouth)."

Having selected the "small stories", as Storysacks: making an impact the elders called them, we started to make the props. The stories are very reminiscent of Aesop's fables; all have animals as central characters and all have a moral. We used a variety of craft techniques: sewing, knitting, painting and embroidery. Each item was broken down into parts to make the task less daunting and encourage more people to be involved. The finished items reflect the ingenuity, skills and capabilities of the group. Some of the pieces are incredibly beautiful.

The finished sacks all have the title handpainted on them in six languages. Each contains the story in print, an audiotape version in English and Hindi, a collection of recipes and the props. The elders used them for the first time at an event held to celebrate the completion of the project. The stories were shared in English, Gujerati and Hindi to an enraptured audience of school children, dignitaries and workers from numerous agencies. The Roshni project's success has secured us support from the Wolf son Fund to develop similar schemes with Chinese and Afro-Caribbean communities where once again, storysacks projects will give older people the opportunity to be heard and to share their knowledge, skills and experience.
 
 
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