Workshops in Developing Countries

Please click for Workshop illustrations.

Particularly where literacy rates are low, people-centred pictures can play an important role in stimulating discussion, raise critical awareness and help people to make local decisions and take action.

The aim of the workshops is to help people in the community to become aware of their own ability to understand and change the situation in which they live. Community members can produce their own pictures at local level, such as discussion starters, educational comic strips, educational games, picture cards, community maps and flannel boards. We also show people how to make puppets and at some workshops we include silk-screen printing to mass-produce images for income generating activity.

Participants usually come from local NGO's working at community level in health, rural and social development, environmental conservation, women’s issues, water and sanitation and other sectors. The workshops adopt a people-centred, participatory approach to training, so that participants' expectations and their needs form the basis for the course content. Pictures can help people otherwise excluded from development planning to make their voices heard.

The workshops are primarily designed for people at grass roots or village level, so it is important to use only locally available materials to enable the participants to continue the work after the workshop. No running water or electricity is needed for these workshops. Each workshop lasts 2-4 weeks. Bob Linney and I facilitate these workshops as members of the charity organisation Health Images. We both love working with people and if you are interested in a visual aids production workshop please contact us. To see some workshop images please look at the following pages or go to the ‘Heath Images’ website for more detailed information.