Voicing the Unvoiced through Photos
OVERVIEW
2022
Cilincing, Jakarta’s northeasternmost district, is among the city’s historical areas. It was in this coastal area that the British first settled in what was then Batavia, with around 12 thousand of British troops landing in 1811 without resistance from the Dutch. During the colonial era, the coast of Cilincing was a seaside resort known for its pristine water, culinary delights, bathing areas, and beaches abundant in shells.
Today, Cilincing is far cry from what it used to be. Two centuries later, Cilincing has turned into an industrialized and densely populated area. Crime runs rampant in the sub-district, including frequent teenage brawls. In 2022, Photovoices International (PVI) trained our partner organization Red Nose Foundation (RNF) on how to implement a Photovoices program. We also provided technical assistance in their Photovoices work with Cilincing’s young people. The program aimed to empower marginalized young people to gain agency, improve critical thinking, as well as voice their concerns and ideas in front of decision makers.
The lives of young people in Cilincing can be exceedingly challenging, with physical conflict seen as a normal occurrence—sometimes even as sport. Within this tumultuous environment, the Photovoices program implemented by RNF gave its young participants a safe space to commit to their ideas of a better future and to support one another. We noticed that sometimes, when a young participant struggled to articulate complicated emotions or situations, other participants would jump in to help.
2
key issues were identified
12
participant
6
photo stories were exhibited
GALLERY
HIGHLIGHTS
Two Key Issues
Before participating in the Photovoices training, the young participants did not realize that what was happening around them was detrimental and hindered their growth and development process. The Photovoices training helped shape their perspective by discussing what is meant by an “issue” and why a phenomenon can be seen as a social issue. Furthermore, they began to contemplate the impacts of certain social problems on themselves and their generation, and wrote down some alternative solutions for the local government. The change from initially tolerating social issues such as dropping out of school, violence, environmental pollution to no longer feeling comfortable with such situations is one of the program’s strongest visible results.
Through discussions they raised two key issues, which were education (school dropouts, unemployment, brawls) and the environment (marine pollution, shell waste).
Skill Development
PVI’s learning structure helped keep the program’s young participants motivated because of the variety of topics and the numerous skills covered, from critical thinking, photography, interviewing, writing, to public speaking within the span of six months. These were likely new to most of the participants, who were excited about the process.
The young participants also developed presentation skills and built the courage to present their photographs and express their concerns about environmental and social issues. Before the program, they had never discussed these issues, even with their peers. Seeing them speak directly to local government representatives at the Final Photo Exhibition and Discussion was an amazing experience and made us very proud of their achievements. We saw that the young participants spoke in front of an audience with confidence, an important skill for them.
Ability to Speak Up
Most young people in Cilincing express their rage or disappointment through negative behaviors like brawls and gang fights because they were never trained to voice their thoughts and feelings.
With the participatory photography training, the young people learned how to use photos to voice their aspirations to policymakers. The training helped them map issues in their neighborhoods and learn several alternative solutions to the issues they identify.
Photo Exhibition
The young participants had the opportunity to present their photos in front of the neighborhood and community unit heads, district head, as well as their parents. The issues presented were very personal, such as school drop out, teenage brawls, safe space for children, marine pollution, and unemployment. At the Final Photo Exhibition and Discussion, they expressed their thoughts, feelings, and ideas about how to make their environment safer for children.
QUOTES
"After taking the photography class, I became more confident about giving presentations. Then I learned how to do interviews properly, how to ask good questions that don't offend people, so people don't misunderstand us. I also learned how to write narratives. In the past, I didn't know that people were making crafts from shell waste. It turns out that shell waste can be valued up to 200-500 thousand rupiah if you turn them into crafts. You can make night lamps, wall hangings. If I hadn’t taken part in this training, maybe I wouldn’t have known any of this, even though I used to be a shell peeler. Something has changed with the way I see it now—when I look at green mussel shell waste. Before, I was used to seeing the scattered shell waste when walking home, but now I'm happy that these shells aren't just thrown away. I hope that in this green mussel village there will be trainings for processing shell waste, so that [people will have] new skills while looking after their children at home."
Desi, 17 years old (RNF)
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