Picture Power for Kenya Health Project

In early July 2018, Christian Aid conducted a participatory photography exercise for a health project in Narok country, Kenya. The project aims to tackle the nutrition needs of pregnant adolescents and teenage mums and their children. Narok has a high pregnancy rate, double the national average and the needs of adolescent girls are not met by the health system. 

The participants included 13 adolescent girls (pregnant and new mums) who were asked to document through their photos answers to the following questions: Challenges you face when feeding yourself and your child; Difficulties you face as a pregnant teenager; Difficulties you face as a teenage mother. After 2 days the participants came together to discuss the photos and to select and caption their most significant photographs.

The following day, an exhibition was held in a school and was attended by community chiefs, a woman MP, adolescent girls, headteachers and mothers.  Around 600 people attended the exhibition. The photographs were used as an entry point for Christian Aid staff and the participants to discuss the challenges faced by the teenage girls.

Submitted by:
Paula Plaza

My grandmother

‘This is my grandmother, my father’s mother. When I gave birth to my baby my parents sent me away, but my grandmother hosted me. I no longer live with her. My parents forgave me after I gave birth, and I now live with them.’

Photographer: Naomi Chepngetich Terer

No meat

‘They had this meat at my neighbour’s house, if I had money I could have bought beef and eaten it with my brothers and sisters at home, like other people do.'

Photographer: Faith Chepkoech

Pregnant for 50 shillings

‘I took this photo because it reminded me of the money my boyfriend used to get me to sleep with him.’

Photographer: Mercy Cherono

No land, no food

'My brother bought this land and gave it to my mum. The field has maize and sweet potatoes. I feel like planting, but I’m not allowed to. My mother is willing to give me some land, but my brother prevents it because he says I should go and live with the father of my baby.’

Photographer: Ivine Chepkorir

My baby can’t eat this

“This is a family meal, a mix of maize and beans, sometimes I feel like cooking them and frying them nicely, but I can’t afford oil and other things to make it nice. This is very hard for a baby to chew, so my baby can’t eat it.’
Photographer: Faith Chebet