Photovoice: A community-based participatory research methodology

Photovoice is a community-based participatory research method, that empowers individuals to stand behind the camera and choose how they want to represent themselves.

For this research project, 17 workers (8 men, 9 women) from 3 different biowaste innovations were asked to take 4 pictures representing their experience as workers in the bioeconomy in Rwanda (2 positive pictures and 2 negative pictures). 

After taking the pictures, an in-depth interview with each participant was carried-out to understand the meaning behind each picture. The statements that you will find below each picture are direct quotes from these interviews.

*The interviews were conducted in Kinyarwanda by Micline and recorded, so that she could transcribe and translate them into English afterwards.

**The workers often have a French-sounding name, because French was an official national language next to Kinyarwanda in Rwanda until 2008 (now replaced by English) and hence, many Rwandans have French names.