On March 19th, the auditorium of the Orsay Museum hosted an extraordinary evening. For nearly an hour and twenty minutes, eight people from Afghanistan, Haiti, Senegal, Sudan, and Ethiopia shared a part of their story on stage: the departures, the ruptures, the dreams, the struggles, and the bonds that make it possible to keep moving forward.

“To love is a verb”

This 2026 edition was conceived as an extension of the exhibition “Renoir and Love”, presented at the Orsay Museum a few days earlier. The thread running through the evening: “To love is a verb, and verbs demand action.”

Love as the force that drives departure. Love as an act of resistance. Love as the energy to rebuild a life somewhere else.

Throughout the evening, the stories spoke of exile, indeed, but also of attachment, of passing things on, of courage and solidarity. In the auditorium, more than 300 people listened in a rare, collective silence. And when some voices trembled, the audience responded with applause, with steady gazes, with an attentive presence. A living demonstration of what genuine encounter can produce when it finally makes room for human stories.

Multiple paths, far from simplified narratives

Each person on stage came to tell a singular story.

• Enat Abera, who arrived in France alone with her three children, spoke about her daily life, balancing work, rebuilding, and her dream of becoming a professional chef.
• Jean-Samuel Mentor, a Haitian journalist, spoke about his commitment to independent press freedom and his involvement in the Voix en Exil (Voices in Exile) programme, led by SINGA, Reporters Without Borders, and the Maison des Journalistes.
• Jeannette Marié, journalist and founder of Komune Média, shared her reflection about love as a choice and as a commitment in a society marked by division.
• Mouhamed Diop, entrepreneur and digital specialist engaged on decarbonisation issues, shared his ambition to build a support network for VTC drivers to improve their working conditions and ease their transition to electric vehicles.
• Mursal Sayas, a former staff member of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, shared her story since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and her current work advocating for human rights and marginalized voices.
• Noor Alam Rasooli, now a cybersecurity specialist at a major French industrial group, recounted his path from Afghanistan to France, shaped by community involvement and a constant drive to build connections.
• Shema Mohamad Abdallah, currently training to become a social worker, spoke about her desire to turn her own lived experience into a strength for supporting the most vulnerable.
• Suhair Khamis, a Sudanese activist and humanitarian worker with a passion for intercultural exchange, spoke about her arrival in France and her involvement in the SINGA community.

Different pathways, but a common determination: to reclaim the telling of their own stories.

Months of preparation to make voices heard

Behind this evening, months of work are hiding. Over nearly five months, the teams at SINGA Paris and J’accueille supported the eight speakers in writing and preparing their stories, with the help of professional coaches and performers.

Most participants were not native French speakers, and several were speaking on a stage for the very first time in their lives. INSPIRE is built precisely on this tension between preparation and embraced vulnerability: a way of speaking that is embodied, sincere, sometimes imperfect, but deeply human.

Changing perspectives through storytelling and emotion

For ten years, INSPIRE by SINGA has been exploring a different way of talking about migration. Not solely through political debate or expert testimony, but through life stories, humour, emotion, and lived experience. A “storytelling show” inspired by TEDx formats, but oriented more toward intimacy and genuine encounter.

The ambition remains the same: to offer a truer, more human perspective on migration, and to remind us that behind every story of exile, there are first and foremost people, aspirations, and contribution into the fabric of our society.