Photovoice is a qualitative participatory method
that facilitates contextual understanding and "gives voice" to people,
communities, and issues often ignored by mainstream society. Wang and
Burris (1997, p. 369) define photovoice as "a process by which people can
identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific
photographic technique."
There are three main goals of photovoice
according to Wang and Burris (1997): 1) To empower people to document
the strengths and weaknesses of their community by photographing daily
life, 2) To facilitate communication and dialogue in large and small
groups to identify important community issues, and 3) To appeal to
policymakers and other people of influence in the interest of change.
Thus photovoice in theory and practice is participatory,
contextually and culturally-anchored, and oriented toward the liberation
of oppressed groups. This method has been used to promote change in the
lives of many oppressed and powerless groups, including refugees and other
victims of political violence, mothers with learning difficulties and Head
Start parents, immigrant workers and Latino immigrant adolescents,
individuals with HIV/AIDS and people who work with this population,
village women in China, the homeless, and relevant to the current project,
street children in Kampala.
In this project, P7
students at three schools in Opit IDP camp (one never displaced, one
displaced to Opit but now returned to village, one still displaced to
Opit) documented life as students and community members through words and
images. Our photovoice project complements an on-going large-scale
quantitative survey effort and many in-depth, qualitative interviews
designed to gain a better understanding of issues related to population
movement and individual, household, and community well-being.
