This report was originally published by Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness.
As part of the SCSC 2021 Fellowship Program, Alice Finta worked with SeeChange to study community-driven health responses to COVID-19 in Latin America.
Community Engagement Initiative: Alice created the SeeChange PhotoVoice Project where youth participants were invited to share a photograph and caption as well as one from an older relative or community member, in response to the question: What have you learned over the past year of the pandemic? In this way, intergenerational dialogue and knowledge-sharing was fostered. After submissions had closed, participants were invited to discuss their images and their takeaways in an online group call. In total, 16 submissions were made. Read the report: Photovoice Project
Final Report: Placing Communities First in Health Crisis Responses: Identifying & Implementing Best Practices for Community-based Health Responses
Latin America is the most unequal region in the world in terms of income inequalities, and struggles with deep and persistent health inequities. Some of these health inequities, however, can be addressed via community-based approaches to health, which are rooted in the knowledge, expertise, values, and needs of the community itself, and which involve community members in the research, development, and implementation processes.
This report seeks to identify the ways in which communities can best be centered in responses to health crises like COVID-19, and outlines the importance of community- based responses to health more generally. A literature review of community-based health responses in Latin America, interviews with seven individuals with experience in community-based research and/or health interventions, six interviews conducted by SeeChange Initiative, and a community engagement initiative inform the findings of this report.
Alice grew up in Kent, England and now lives in London. She studied Spanish and Portuguese for her undergraduate degree at University College London and is currently finishing an MSc in Inequalities and Social Science at the London School of Economics.
She is passionate about the intersecting inequalities that migrant and refugee communities face and the importance of intersectionality in social movement building. In the future she hopes to work in a civil society organization that supports vulnerable and marginalized groups.
