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Women United for Change: A Rural Women's Initiative

Women represent a particularly vulnerable social group in Liberia:

• With a total fertility rate of 6.2 alongside low access to maternal care, Liberian women experience among the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. (Republic of Liberia Basic Package of Health and Social Welfare Services, 2008)
• Discrimination against girls is common, leading to limited access to education.
• About one-third of women are literate compared to sixty percent of men living outside of the capital, Monrovia (Republic of Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy, April 2008).
• Sexual and gender-based violence is prevalent in Liberian society and is unfortunately an accepted aspect of gender relations. By the end of the civil war 77% of women had been victims of rape and other forms of sexual abuse (Republic of Liberia National Mental Health Policy, May 2009).

The unique challenges faced by women compelled Tiyatien Health to initiate a program focused on women’s health and social mobility. To launch this program, Danielle Alkov and Julia Fleming, from Harvard Medical School, were invited to initiate a Women’s Photovoice project in Zwedru during the summer of 2009. The aim of the project was to increase women’s participation in the region.

The Photovoice project consisted of giving 18 community women cameras and asking them to take photographs of their lives and communities. The Photovoice team, composed of Alkov, Fleming, and four Liberian community health workers, simultaneously conducted workshops on the strengths and challenges that the women experience in their communities. Using the cameras, participants documented their own health and daily life realities and then engaged in a process of critical reflection while analyzing the photographs together at workshops. The methodology promoted empowerment and elicited the authentic narrative of the participants. “Photovoice uses participants’ photographs as a catalyst to engage participants and policy-makers in group dialogue for social change”[1]. The theoretical basis underlying the method was formulated based upon Paulo Freire’s critical education approach, feminist theory, and community-based approach to photography.

Using the cameras to portray their communities gave the women a sense of pride. They felt empowered to improve their lives and this momentum led to the initiation of a women’s group to work as a team for social change. Thus the Zwedru Women United for Change group was conceived.

[1] Modifying Photovoice for community-based participatory Indigenous research. Social Science and Medicine:66 (2008) 1393-1405.