The “Earth stories project” by the Challenge to Change (CtC) and WWF in Vietnam aims to raise communication efficiency on climate change by telling stories, using our common ability to observe to realize the relationship between climate change and humans.

Telling and using stories is a popular method of communication for Vietnamese people. In modern life, telling stories is considered an effective method of communication not only by the community, but also by those working in media, scientists and policy makers.

This method is especially meaningful for climate change communications, but requires constant creativity and an open, two-way exchange to understand the needs of community.

The first phase of the project aims to develop the handbook, introducing methods for building stories to the project staff, especially for those in the media, on climate change.

The seminar’s purpose is to introduce handbook drafts of leading stories, gather participant feedback on the content and methods for the handbook, and discuss ideas for using the handbook.

Challenge to Change is an international NGO, established in the UK in 2008, working primarily in Vietnam. Since its inception the organisation has focused on climate change issues, supporting poor communities to adapt their livelihoods to the local impacts of changing climate in Vietnam, whilst at the same time persuading those who contribute most to climate change, especially in the UK, to take responsibility for reducing global carbon emissions. Since 2008 the organisation has worked in Da Nang, Quy Nhon, Can Tho, Quang Tri, and Ha Giang Provinces of Vietnam, in coastal and mountainous, rural and urban areas.

In 2012 the organisation is broadening its focus to sustainability issues, including climate change. There are two sides to the majority of current global sustainability issues: on one hand, powerful elements of the global system pursuing unsustainable activities for economic gain, and on the other hand, poor or disempowered communities who normally experience the first and greatest impacts of such activities in their daily lives./.