Klong Ngun is a squatter community in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Its people face many of the issues that confront slum communities all over the world: housing problems, health and sanitation problems, lack of access to municipal services, and virtually no voice in the political system. The community is approximately forty years old; many of its residents have prevailed over the primary concern of eviction. However, community members do worry about the problems they face during the flooding season; their lack of access to public water mains and sewage systems; and the impact these exert on their health.
Photovoice is a methodology based on health promotion principles; it provides a way to give people at the community level a voice in the assessment of what their community needs most. In this way, it switches the roles that studied communities and researchers in them play. Photovoice entails community people taking photographs and then using their images to facilitate dialogue between them and outside groups. The community shows us their areas of concern, their everyday activities, and what they love about their community through their own lenses.
This project facilitated discussion between myself, fellow researchers, and the Klong Ngun community regarding health, environmental and housing issues. Through these discussions, we were able to formulate next steps towards solving these problems. The goal of this presentation is to describe how we used photovoice to increase a community's input in identifying and resolving these issues that have long been problems in these squatter communities.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community Health Assessment, Housing
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.