Alumbe Hellen Collins has been working as a storyteller in her native Kenya since 2002. As its Creative Director of Programmes, she is an integral part of Zamaleo ACT –  a cultural organisation for the performing arts. She has performed in the United States, Iran, Sweden, South Africa, Zanzibar, Reunion, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. In addition to her busy performance schedule, she also runs storytelling workshops, mentoring and training young tellers so they too can take up the profession. She is well known within Kenyan educational circles as a persuasive storyteller-teacher who has left an unforgettable impact on her young pupils. “Storytelling gives me the chance to interact with all kinds of people, irrespective of their age or culture,” she says. “It is the universal way of communicating and sharing knowledge.”