Beyond engagement in working with children in eight Nairobi slums to address safety, security, and housing: Digital tools for policy and community dialogue

ABSTRACT

This article studies the ways in which researchers working in the area of health and social research and using participatory visual methods might extend the reach of participant-generated creations such as photos and drawings to engage community leaders and policy-makers. Framed as going ‘beyond engagement’, the article explores the idea of the production of researcher-led digital dialogue tools, focusing on one example, based on a series of visual arts-based workshops with children from eight slums in Nairobi addressing issues of safety, security, and well-being in relation to housing. The authors conclude that there is a need for researchers to embark upon the use of visual tools to expand the life and use of visual productions, and in particular to ensure meaningful participation of communities in social change.

KEYWORDS:

• Arts-based research
• digital dialogue tool
• Kenya
• safety and security
• slums

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Fatima Khan and Lukas Labacher for their assistance in preparing this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Claudia Mitchell http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9790-2486

Notes

1. This study looked at the safety and security issues confronting children in relation to housing in eight primary housing cooperatives in slums and informal settlements in Nairobi (including Kinyago-Kanuku; Makina-Kibera; Razaak; Soweto East; Huruma and Kawangare). This study was carried out under the Evaluation Challenge Fund – Children & Violence – in order to test out the following evaluation hypothesis: improved tenure security, housing and living conditions, and coop/community development activities contribute to reducing family stressors and the risk of violence to children through better physical security of the dwelling, larger and separate living spaces for children, safer access to external facilities such as toilets and lighting, improved family savings and livelihoods, as well as more sustainable communities. The evaluation provided the resources to test these assumptions, which emerged from experience and anecdotal testimonies on previous National Cooperative Housing Union of Kenya (NACHU) programming efforts. The evaluation was supported under Category 3 of the Evaluation Challenge Fund, which targets ‘specific components of programmes not directly designed to prevent violence but potentially having an impact in terms of violence prevention for children.’

2. The study was conducted in a partnership with Rooftops Canada and NACHU a national NGO focusing on micro-finance organisation to support low-income housing. Masters and doctoral students at Kenyatta University participated in conducting the arts-based workshops with children and also helped to conduct interviews and focus group with community leaders and youth.

3. These approvals included ethical clearance from McGill University, Canada, and research permit issued by the Kenya National Council for Science and Technology as the constitutional body mandated to oversee all research in the country.

4. See, for example, Picturing Inclusion: Voices of Girls with Disabilities which can be viewed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7R2z0_DcOo).