S1E3 - Photovoice: lessons from Liberia and Nigeria working with people affected by severe stigmatising skin diseases

In this episode we talk to Dr. Tosin Adekeye and Wede Tate about the method ‘Photovoice’ that was used with people affected by severe stigmatising skin diseases in Nigeria and Liberia. We hear about how Photovoice can: 

• Enable people to capture their everyday experiences of living with their condition  
• Connect people with decision makers through dissemination of photos and narratives 
• Strengthen agency and voice of those affected by skin diseases to communicate peer led solutions to improve their health and wellbeing 

Wede Leoni Seekey-Tate, University of Liberia (UL-PIRE) / REDRESS, Human Resource Management, Research Fellow 

Wede Leoni Seekey Tate is the Research Fellow for Human Resource Management (HRM) on the REDERESS project. In her current role, she provides support in the design of effective integrated strategies for the sustainable, acceptable, and affordable case detection, referral, and treatment of Severe Stigmatizing Skin Diseases (SSSDs). She also contributes to the development of recommendations for the scale up of quality effective interventions within the existing health system infrastructure; and guides analysis of impact of human resource management practices on case detection, referral, and treatment of SSSDs with a specific focus on performance management perspectives. She has worked with the University of Liberia - Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (UL-PIRE) on an HIV research project. She has supported the Liberian Ministry of Health through WHO, to finalize Liberia’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Master Plan including strategy, budget, and one-year operational plan.  She obtained a Master of Public Health from Cuttington University in Liberia and diploma in Health Care Management in Tropical Countries from the Swiss Tropical Institute of Public Health. 

www.redressliberia.org  

https://www.redressliberia.org/our-approach/community-engagement-and-involvement/ 

Dr Oluwatosin Adekeye, Department of Psychiatry, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Kaduna State 

Oluwatosin Adekeye is a social science researcher who has worked with a number of organisations especially in the area of community participation and empowerment. His initial work was a research funded by the TDR on Community Directed Interventions. This provided the basis for subsequent social science and public health work with various communities in northern Nigeria. His interests recently is research relating to health and wellbeing and how various segments of the community are able to report their lived experiences, such that it can foster engagement and translate into programmatic change.