About us

About Storyflames

Storyflames is our name for the platform where every story is given a refuge. Here you will find life stories from people aged 65 and over with roots in the Christian Indigenous peoples of the Middle East, whose experiences of persecution, oppression, war and flight have rarely been documented or given a place in our shared memory.

Many of them have been forced to leave their homes and countries and build a new life in a new place. Their stories hold experiences of loss and upheaval, but also of language, faith, culture, community and life before, during and after migration.

Storyflames is a documentation project that collects and preserves these older people’s life stories for the future. Through their own voices, we want to bring to light experiences that would otherwise risk being lost when a generation passes.

The stories are collected through interviews. Everyone taking part has approved their text and can ask us to remove it at any time.

The stories are available in Swedish, English, Arabic and Suroyo. Each story is published in the language it was told in and translated from there.

Storyflames is run by Läsfrämjarinstitutet

Storyflames is run by Läsfrämjarinstitutet, a non-profit association promoting reading through literature, art and culture. Storyflames is one strand of Läsfrämjarinstitutet’s project Läsambassaden, which is funded by Allmänna arvsfonden, the Swedish Inheritance Fund.

Läsambassaden is a reading promotion project for children, young people and older people in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Its aim is to give more children access to literature and storytelling, to strengthen the role of young people as ambassadors and reading role models, and to break the isolation of older people by collecting and passing on their life stories.

Alongside documenting life stories, art exhibitions will be created from the memories shaped together with the organisation Ikoro. At the end of the project, many of the life stories will be gathered in book form.