The video story ‘Little Grinch Hearts Flourish – Donegal in a time of Covid’ was created by the 8 women who participated in the Donegal Women’s Network online course: “Wholehearted Women: Creative Storytelling and Writing”. Over a period of 7 sessions in April and May this year the women wrote individual stories drawing on personal photos they had taken over the year 2020.
In all the stories a shared love for this county of Donegal in the northwest of Ireland was strong. For some this was the place they were born in and for others it had become their adopted home. Each of the women spoke of the feeling of belonging to this place apart and of such beauty. Despite the Covid restrictions in place over the year, the story they wanted to collectively write about was of their growing appreciation of the landscape’s beauty, gifted to them by this slowed down pace of time. The video is the result of the process the women used to capture phrases that spoke to their hearts from one another’s individual stories. It was very much an inclusive process that ensured their different voices were included and some photos from each woman that they felt best reflected their shared story of 2020.
The facilitator designed the course from processes she learned as a participant on a digital storytelling course delivered earlier this year by Partners Training for Transformation facilitators Jacqui Gage and Zoryana Pshyk.