Much of the work this firm does concerns people in difficult circumstances: households displaced by drought or conflict, families inside social protection programmes, workers in informal enterprises. That work produces statistics, and statistics are a poor record of what a policy felt like to the person it was applied to. The Human Stories strand exists to hold the other record. No story has been published, and this note sets out the standards the strand will work to.
What the strand will document
The intention is to document experience rather than to illustrate a conclusion, and that distinction governs everything else. A story commissioned to prove a programme worked is advertising, and usually visible as such. The strand is designed around questions we do not know the answer to: what a household did when a transfer arrived, what it cost them to be registered, what they were told and what they understood. Where an account contradicts the programme's own reporting, the strand will publish the account and say so.
The strand documents experience rather than illustrating a conclusion, and is built around questions the firm does not already know the answer to.
Consent
Consent is treated as a process rather than a signature. Before recording begins, a participant is told in their own language who we are, who is funding the work, what the material is for, where it may appear, and that taking part has no bearing on any assistance they receive or expect. That last point is stated more than once, because where an unfamiliar team arrives with cameras, people reasonably assume the two are connected.
Consent is confirmed again after recording, once the participant has seen or heard what was captured rather than only what was described. It can be withdrawn later, without explanation, and withdrawal means the material is removed from use. Where a participant is a child, consent is sought from a guardian and from the child, and either refusal ends the matter.
“No one appears in our work who has not been told, before recording begins and in their own language, what the material is for, where it will appear, and how to withdraw it later.”
Veynuus editorial standards
Dignity in the frame
How a person is photographed is an editorial judgement about their standing, not a technical one. We do not photograph people from above to make them appear smaller, or crop them to a condition rather than a person. We do not film someone crying to open a piece, and we do not stage an activity and present it as observed. The image should be one the subject would be content to have shown to their neighbours.
Names and locations are used only where a participant has agreed and where doing so carries no protection risk. Where identification could expose someone to harm, the story is told without it or not at all. We do not pay for participation, though direct costs such as transport are reimbursed.
Accuracy and review
Quotations are used as spoken, with translation checked by a second Somali speaker who was not present at the interview, and participants are never composited into single characters. Before publication they are given the chance to hear or read what will be published about them. That is not an approval right over interpretation, and it catches the errors that matter most to them.
Status
The strand is in development and no story has been published. Organisations interested in commissioning documentation under these standards should write to [email protected].