Empowering Maasai women behind the camera: Photovoice as a tool for trachoma control

Abstract

Plain English summary Trachoma is a blinding eye disease caused by bacterial infections. It mostly effects people living in low- and middle-income countries including the Maasai tribe in Tanzania. Photovoice is a method using photography to document, reflect upon and engage community members to communicate issues of concern. This paper describes the use of photovoice as part of a program to educate Maasai women on preventing and managing trachoma in their community. In this intervention, co-developed with the community, participants were asked to share information from a workshop on trachoma with their community and to capture their experiences as educators using disposable cameras. Five weeks post-workshop women shared photos of the successes and challenges they encountered when educating the community about trachoma. Women demonstrated empowerment as participants in this public engagement intervention. The lessons learned from this intervention and its use of photovoice can inform future interventions for health promotion and to empower women to be ambasadors of change in resource limited settings.

Keywords

• PPI
• Photovoice
• Trachoma
• Maasai
• Empowerment