PILOT PROJECTS: PARTICIPATORY VIDEO (PV)

“The most powerful part of the PV training was realizing how video can give a voice to those who are often unheard. Seeing people open up on camera and express their thoughts freely made me understand the true power of storytelling. I learned that video is more than just a recording. It is a tool for advocacy, awareness, and change…. When people see these realities through video –– when they hear personal testimonies and witness real struggles –– it touches their hearts in a way that words cannot. Video makes issues real, relatable, and urgent, inspiring action and change.”

-Josephat Mashati, For the Good Programs Manager

In August, 2024, we piloted our first Participatory Video (PV) project in Kenya, experimenting with PV as an additional tool to address the cextremely high rates of teenage pregnancy in the regions we work. Our Team Angaza (TA), all themselves young women from the communities they work in, interviewed local teenagers who had gotten pregnant to learn their stories, hopes for their futures, and advice they would offer other girls to avoid unwanted pregnancies on camera. Their collective voices were then edited into a single video shared by Team Angaza to girls ­across Loita and Naikarra as part of intensive sexual and reproductive health (SHRH) education sessions they taught over the extended Kenyan school break. During the process of PV, small groups engage in a reflective process to identify local challenges and then collaboratively create videos to share those challenges to their communities. This reflective process is key to the behavior changes and social action that often arise from PV projects.

Our own pilot project “Alerted girl’s minds, making them think critically about what happened,” noted Eunice Kitipa, our TA for Olposimoru. Girls who took part “felt more visible in their community” noted Jane Masante and Sarah Sonkoi, TA for Kone and Empurpurtia. “Girls learned they weren’t the only ones passing through their challenges,” noted Esther Koila, TA for Mausa. “One girl wasn’t able to talk the 1st and 2nd time I visited,” described TA Leah Kurraru. “By the third, she was very confident and advising other girls.” For Loice Topoti, our TA for Kitilikini, video offered a tool to deepen conversations, one that works “particularly well for complex, real-life scenarios.” And, importantly, noted Gladys Muala, or TA for Olpusare, “Video can be used to change hearts and minds about those issues.”