110711 alp kenya drought photo story

8/6/2019 110711 ALP Kenya Drought Photo Story

1/3

CARE: Powerful Hands Working Together

Kenyan women speak out on perils of droughtthrough photo storytelling

July 11, 2011, Kenya As the food security crisis worsens in Northern Kenya, CARE International is responding

with support through humanitarian food and water aid, as well sanitation, mental health and education support.

This is vital as the Kenya Food Security Outlook for the period of April to September of 2011 predicts that an

estimated 2.4 million people in Kenya will be affected by lack of rainfall, coupled with water scarcity and depleted

grazing ranges, putting them at risk of high levels of food insecurity. In addition to aid efforts, CARE is continuing

its decade-long commitment in North Eastern Kenya to drought-affected communities in helping them build their

resilience to increasing and more frequent drought. The Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP) in Africa is an

example of a CARE initiative that focuses on helping people gain the skills needed for long-term food security in

the face of a changing climate.

The women in Nanighi community in North Eastern

Kenya have something to say about drought, but their

voices are usually not heard due to cultural norms thatshy them away from media. This is an area that is home

to historic pastoralist communities of Somali origins who

have traditionally kept to themselves, and yet are

increasingly dependent upon outsiders as they are

having to shift to farming activities or move to urban

centres for survival. When the women meet, however,

their voices rise. They talk about children being hungry in

their village, of cows dying before they make it to

markets, and how they are now having to leave their

households to find new ways to make money.

CARE is helping the women share how climate changeimpacts them in the hopes that their stories will not only

help others understand and address their problems, but build greater awareness about womens concerns within

the village itself. They are doing so through community-driven photo stories where members of the village work

with CARE staff and local journalists to create short videos with photos and narration in their own voice. The

photo stories are part of a monitoring and evaluation system used by CAREs Adaptation Learning Programme for

Africa (ALP) a five-year programme working with communities to increase the capacity for vulnerable people to

adapt to a changing climate.

These stories are not created in isolation. They build on wider discussions with community members and CARE

about the most severe climate change impacts that need to be addressed in their village. These discussions are

at the core of creating longer-term climate change adaptation plans for the village, with the support of local

governments and other service providers. Three groups were selected to make photo stories women, elder men

and younger men as each of them are affected by the drought in different ways. The womens group said that

increasing livestock and human diseases due to drought are impacting them most. They have fears as the

droughts continue to increase and become more severe in North Eastern Kenya. Their stories also show how they

are coping with the problems such as starting a savings group initiative called a merry-go-round so they can

support each other in jobs such as mat-making, tea selling and running small sales kiosks (View

www.careclimatechange.org/videos/africaalp).

Maka Barrow Shuriye, 28, takes a photo of Eaken Shafa, 56, and

her grandson Kadar in Nanighi village for the womens photo story.Tamara Plush/ CARE 2011
http://www.careclimatechange.org/videos/africaalphttp://www.careclimatechange.org/videos/africaalp


2/3

To develop the community stories, local journalists and CARE staff were

trained in technically making the stories, as well as using a participatory

storytelling process. The villagers worked with them in a two-day workshop

setting to decide what to say and what to show about the impacts of drought

and their coping strategies. This process also served to open the eyes of

some of the journalists who had not worked directly with this community

before, despite it being less than two hours from the main town in the

district. I saw that the community is not idle as climate change takes toll on

them, instead they are becoming adaptable. I may even say industrious,

said Abdisalan Ahmed from Standard Media. My initial understanding was

that CARE gives aid during a humanitarian crisis. But I came to realise that

CARE is also empowering communities to assist them so that they can

become self reliant.

After the stories were narrated by the community, the journalists and CARE

staff went to Nanighi village to photograph the story scenes with the women

and mens groups. For the womens group, they had talked with their

neighbors about the project, and chose to photograph some of their

hardships like having malnourished children in the village and sick

animals. But they also wanted to show their business initiatives such asselling milk, to garner more support. But there was still fear of having their

video shown widely, and one of the women who had originally told her story asked for her voice not to be used as

she feared her husbands reaction when he found out she had spoken out in such a way. CARE agreed to use

another womans voice and to show the videos first to only the women, and they could decide who to show it to

later.

After editing the video for laptops and cell

phones, CARE staff and the journalists

returned to the village to show their films to

the storytellers and village leaders. When

we showed the videos in the village, the

women were still reluctant to have the mensee their stories because they usually do

not talk in group meetings. So we agreed

to send all the men out of the meeting after

seeing the elder mens and young mens

videos, said Tamara Plush, CAREs

Climate Change Communications

Coordinator, who facilitated the photo

story activity. However, after watching

the mens videos, male elders in the group talked about how important it was to also hear from the women since

they are part of the community, and asked the women to show their film. This was a powerful statement, and you

could see the pride on the womens faces.

After the viewing, the women decided that not only could their husbands and fellow villagers watch their films in

future screenings, but that they wanted their story told widely to children in their village to raise awareness on

climate change, in other villages where CARE works, to Kenyan policy-makers, and to the world.

We understand now how sharing our information with the local community helps people understand more about

activities for women in this village, said Asha Klas Abdullahi, 29. The elders who watched have appreciated what

we have done, and no one is criticising it. It gives us more confidence to share our stories.

Contact for additional photos; more information:

Asha Klas Abdullahi, 29, shows her milk-selling business as part of the womensphotostory in Nanighi village. TamaraPlush/CARE 2011

Community leaders and the men and women storytellers watch their videos inNanighi village. Tamara Plush/CARE 2011


3/3

Tamara Plush, Communications Coordinator

Poverty, Environment and Climate Change Network

[email protected]

Contact for stories/media on drought in the Horn of Africa

Sandra Bulling, Communications OfficerCARE International - Genevatelephone +41.22.795.1033 / fax +41.22.795.1029 / mobile + 41.792.056.951

email [email protected]

Contact for more on the Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa (ALP)

Fiona Percy, Programme Coordinator

[email protected]@careclimatechange.org

www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alp

--------------

Digital Photo Stories: CARE will continue showing the digital photo stories in the Nanighi villages to raise

awareness about climate change impacts so change can be understood and monitored over time, as well as in

the five other communities it is working with in the region through the ALP programme. As well, the videos will be

shared between communities in Kenya and other African countries where ALP works, as well as with local and

national governments and donors to hear community voices and evidence in a powerful way. Using this newprocess of digital photo storytelling, CARE will work with the Nanighi community members through the lifetime of

the ALP programme to record adaptation activities other adaptation practitioners to share experiences and

methods with other communities, and around the world. However, they also have an eye on the future with ideas

such as battery-powered projectors or videos downloaded to village cell phones to share the stories more widely.

The Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP) for Africa aims to increase the capacity of vulnerable households

in Sub-Saharan Africa to adapt to climate variability and change. It is active in 40 communities in across Ghana,

Niger, Mozambique and Kenya. Towards this end, the ALP is: 1) Developing and applying innovative approaches

to Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) to generate best practice models; 2) Empowering local communities and

civil society organisations to have a voice in decision-making on adaptation; 3) Promoting best practice models for

CBA among adaptation practitioners; and 4) Aiming to influence national, regional and international adaptationpolicies and plans. Gender equality and diversity constitute a particular focus for the ALP. The ALP programme is

supported by the United Kingdoms Department for International Development (DfID), The Ministry of Foreign

Affairs of Denmark, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Austrian Development Cooperation.

http://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alp

CARE International is a leading aid organisation with more than 65 years experience fighting global poverty and

delivering emergency assistance. In 70 countries, CARE works with the poorest communities to improve basic

health and education, enhance rural livelihoods and food security, increase access to clean water and sanitation,

and expand economic opportunity. Our long-term development assistance and emergency relief initiatives are

currently benefiting more than 55 million people around the world. CARE is helping the most worlds most

vulnerable communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.www.careclimatechange.org.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alphttp://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alphttp://www.careclimatechange.org/http://www.careclimatechange.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alphttp://www.careclimatechange.org/adaptation-initiatives/alphttp://www.careclimatechange.org/

110711 alp kenya drought photo story

Documents