The camera never lies: children’s views of health in their communities

As part of its 15-year study of childhood poverty, Young Lives is working with children in Ethiopia to understand their views of health in their communities and how it affects their lives.

Children’s input and participation are central to Young Lives. Recently, we have been working with children in two regions of Ethiopia (Oromiya and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region) to encourage them to express their values and experiences through photos and discussion. By reflecting on the pictures and their messages we are learning more about the reality of children’s lives, ensuring that our research is set in a relevant and child-focused context.

Young Lives and Photovoice staff ran workshops with the children to provide basic photography training and facilitate child-led discussions of health in their communities. The children then went out to take pictures of subjects and situations they perceived as good or bad for people’s health. The photos they produced were both stunning and informative, just as in a similar Young Lives/Photovoice activity in 2005. The children shared these latest photos and explained the reasons behind each.

A final selection of images was chosen based on what was most important to the children, and these were printed with captions and displayed in the communities. The exhibition gave the children the opportunity to present their pictures and to explain what was behind them to family, friends and other community members.

After these community workshops the children were invited to present their photos at an exhibition hosted by Young Lives in Addis Ababa on 30 May 2008. National policy-makers, NGO representatives and the media were invited to view, listen and discuss the photos and to build their insights into children’s daily lives, their preoccupations, hopes and aspirations. The children enjoyed presenting their photos and the audience showed real interest in their perspectives and their proposed solutions to their concerns. The exhibition was well received and feedback and policy-relevant reactions were collected from visitors.

The photos show that children have a good understanding of what they need to do in order to be as healthy as possible, and they illustrate some of the everyday health hazards they face. They show situations where children perceive poor health conditions and also depict good practices that children would like to see more of in their communities. The images reveal particularly that children:

• know how important clean water and sanitation is for health and personal hygiene

• care very much that all members of their family remain healthy and well cared for

• understand issues of safety, that some areas are dangerous or unhealthy to play in, or that some jobs are hazardous and care must be taken

• are aware of the importance of treating wounds to prevent infection, and cleanliness as an integral part of health

• appreciate the importance of good health services, but acknowledge that they are often far away from the children’s homes.

For more information on this photo project and launch event, and some of the photos see the  International Press Service (IPS) article here.

We are now working to ensure that the momentum built by the children is not lost. Exhibitions at various events in Ethiopia and the UK aim to communicate the captured views to wider audiences (notably at a UNICEF event celebrating the Day of the African Child in Addis Ababa on 16 June 2008 and at the ‘Re-presenting childhood and youth’ conference organised by the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth in Sheffield, July 2008). Further, we are combining information from the photos and their accompanying notes with descriptive analysis from the Young Lives quantitative questionnaires (see research methodology and data page) on health infrastructure and health problems in those communities. Further outputs from this are expected by the end of 2008.

Please contact Young Lives if you wish to discuss the potential use of these Young Lives photo exhibition materials at forthcoming, relevant, events.