Participation by Orphaned Children in Zimbabwe

The Video The Children They Are Left With

Abstract

* Focus on Africa | Reports from Field

In this paper, child participation is discussed in the context of a video entitled The Children They Are Left With, which was developed by the STRIVE project of Catholic Relief Services/Zimbabwe (CRS/ZW). With support from CRS/ZW, the video was put together by four orphaned siblings to share their life experiences. The video was then presented at different forums and used to facilitate viewers’ discussion of orphan-related issues and policies. The main lessons learned from the process are that child participation is possible within a project and that video documentary offers an opportunity for effective participation that can be fun for children and allows them to shape the overall process of recording. The paper also discusses some of the challenges of children’s participation in video recording and concludes by recommending that children need to be fully informed of the process and its purpose and they need to identify with the overall objectives of the project if they are to make meaningful contributions.