Gathering data about slum communities through the Poverty Survey is vital, but CR is now supplementing this via an innovative project, called photovoice, which uses photographs taken by beneficiaries to allow the NGO’s staff to better understand their lives, priorities and the issues they face.
In November Karijn Kakabeeke, a Dutch documentary photographer and experienced Photovoice trainer, flew to Kolkata for a week with Esther Sulkers, who chairs the Calcutta Rescue Research Collaborative, to run a course with students and train up its outreach team.
Twenty students learned about various aspects of photography from Karijn, and then went out into their communities to take photographs related to gender equality, a huge issue in India which is directly linked to health and poverty.
They were then encouraged to talk about their photographs and identify common themes before they staged a thought-provoking exhibition for staff, parents and guests.
In addition to providing staff with important insights into the lives and views of students, it allowed the students to develop new perspectives, individually and together. These included that everyone should be financially independent irrespective of gender; we shouldn’t put financial liability only on men or responsibility for household chores solely on women.
One of the students, Noor, said: “Karijn was great. She taught us the basics of photography, what to keep in mind while taking photos, and how to communicate through photography. I hadn’t known that photos can do so many things. I took photos to showcase the gender norms in slum areas. I absolutely loved it.”
The project with the outreach team allowed them to understand how to take and use photographs effectively in health education, using the theme of nutrition as an example.
At the same time Karijn – who has run similar projects everywhere from Ghana to the UK – was teaching selected CR staff how to set up and run photovoice projects themselves in the future, and she will be providing online support over the coming year.
