Department of Health Management and Policy, Drexel University School of Public Health. USA.
Health Hum Rights. 2009;11(1):73-85.
Currently 30.2% of female-headed households with children in the United States experience food insecurity, defined as the lack of access to enough food for an active and healthy life. In 2007, approximately 12.4 million children were at risk for hunger. When female-headed households and households with children have the highest prevalence of food insecurity and hunger in the US, the participation of low-income mothers in the development and administration of policies and programs related to nutrition and poverty are fundamental to the process of ending hunger and improving child well-being. In this article, we describe the Witnesses to Hunger program, a participatory advocacy project that uses the "photovoice" technique to engage mothers to take photos and record their stories about poverty and hunger with the intent to inform social welfare policy in the US. Witnesses to Hunger is grounded in the human rights framework that is supported by international conventions on the rights of women, the rights of the child, and economic, social, and cultural rights. The Witnesses to Hunger program works to increase civic participation of low-income women and to maintain a strategic public awareness campaign. After introducing the Witnesses to Hunger program, this article describes the past decade of unchanging food insecurity disparities, demonstrates the lack of participatory dialogue in health and welfare programs, and provides examples of how Witnesses to Hunger counters the conventional dialogue about welfare. Throughout, this paper demonstrates how the participatory approach of the Witnesses to Hunger program improves our understanding of basic human needs and the social determinants of health, and informs legislators on how to improve health and welfare policy.
目前，美国有 30.2%的女性户主家庭和有孩子的家庭面临粮食不安全问题，即无法获得足够的食物来维持积极健康的生活。2007 年，约有 1240 万儿童面临饥饿风险。在美国，女性户主家庭和有孩子的家庭的粮食不安全和饥饿发生率最高，因此，低收入母亲参与与营养和贫困相关的政策和方案的制定和管理，对于结束饥饿和改善儿童福祉的进程至关重要。本文介绍了“饥饿见证者”计划，这是一个参与性倡导项目，采用“摄影见证”技术，让母亲们拍摄和记录有关贫困和饥饿的故事，旨在为美国的社会福利政策提供信息。“饥饿见证者”计划以国际妇女权利公约、儿童权利公约以及经济、社会和文化权利公约所支持的人权框架为基础。“饥饿见证者”计划致力于提高低收入妇女的公民参与度，并维持一项战略性的公共宣传运动。在介绍“饥饿见证者”计划之后，本文描述了过去十年中粮食不安全差距始终未变的情况，展示了健康和福利方案中缺乏参与性对话的现象，并举例说明了“饥饿见证者”计划如何扭转有关福利的传统对话。全文通过这些内容展示了“饥饿见证者”计划的参与式方法如何增进我们对基本人类需求和健康的社会决定因素的理解，并为立法者提供了有关如何改进健康和福利政策的信息。
