Hope: An evening of storytelling
As human beings, we all want to make connections: to reach out to others, to learn from them, to express ourselves and to share our experiences. One of the most vital ways we do this is by telling each other stories.
Watch the event
Drawing upon this fundamental human desire, MSF was delighted to host an evening of storytelling on Tuesday 6 December in Oxford.
Our storytellers were MSF staff, who recounted short stories that painted vivid, unique and personal images.
It was a compelling evening of personal anecdotes, bringing insights into the people, communities and stories that make up MSF.
Expanding on the theme ‘Hope’, they took us behind the headlines and statistics to share stories that showed hope is something that stays alive and drives people forward in even the most difficult of circumstances.
Our speakers (in order of appearance)
Robin Lustig (event chair)
From 1989 until 2012, Robin presented The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 and Newshour on BBC World Service. Before joining the BBC he was a correspondent for Reuters in Madrid, Paris and Rome, and then spent 12 years at The Observer, including a period based in the Middle East. In 2013, Robin received the Charles Wheeler award for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism.
Rebecca Ferguson, MSF Nurse - speaking about Afghanistan
Becci is a London based paediatric nurse with a special interest in paediatric emergencies. She has worked in the humanitarian sector since 2016 and has done two assignments with MSF, one to Sierra Leone, and one to Afghanistan.
Dr Prudence Jarrett, MSF Paediatrician - speaking about Central African Republic
Prudence spent ten months in Bambari in the Central African Republic as a doctor – her first assignment with MSF. She usually works in London as a paediatrician and researcher in global public health.
Moses Soro, MSF Finance and Human Resource Manager - telling his own autobiographical story of hope (via video link from Nigeria)
Moses was a refugee who was naturalised as a British citizen. He has worked in the banking sector, with international NGOs, and recently with the Metropolitan Police in London. He is an HR professional and accredited with the Chartered Institute of People Development in the UK. He worked for MSF previously in Syria and is currently deployed to Nigeria as a Finance and Human Resource Manager.
Rita Benjelloun, MSF Project Coordinator - speaking about Yemen
Rita joined MSF in 2016, first as an HR/Finance manager and then as project coordinator. She has done eight assignments for MSF as a project coordinator in Central African Republic, South Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo), South Sudan, North Kivu (DRC), a search and rescue mission on the Ocean Viking ship, Syria, Haiti and Yemen. She returned From Yemen at the end of August 2022 and is now a project and programme management specialist at Plan International.