Photonovela to educate on nutrition
ESL speakers create copy that is easy to understand
A photonovela became a master's project for Laura Nimmon, MA, a doctoral fellow with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in Victoria, British Columbia.
Her MA research involved work with immigrant women who spoke English as a second language (ESL). Together, they created a photonovela — literature that looks like a comic book with photographs and captions — about eating well after immigrating to Canada.
She knew from the start of her project that she wanted to target the topic of language as a barrier to good health for women who immigrate to Canada. During her project research, she found that educational health literature was more effective when health seekers help create their own materials, because it is written in a way they can understand.
Nimmon says photonovelas were, therefore, the perfect choice for her project, because they are participatory. To create a photonovela, she went to the local immigrant center where a woman's group consisting of South American, South East Asian, and East Asian immigrants met once a week. Five women ranging in age from 35 to 72 participated in the project.
"Because a photonovela is participatory, the women chose the topic that was most important to them. They found that nutrition was the biggest hindrance to having good health in Canada and felt they ate better food in their native country," says Nimmon.
To create the photonovela on nutrition, Nimmon hired a public health nurse to provide lessons on how to eat well on a low-income diet including exercise. This information was used in the photonovela to teach good nutrition. The group created a story about their experience of moving to Canada and not eating well. As a result of poor eating habits, they felt upset and depressed, and they gained weight.
In the photonovela, the main character goes to talk to her teacher about the problem, and the teacher brings in a nurse to teach the ESL women's group about diet and exercise.
The purpose of the photonovela was to create written information immigrant women could use to learn about eating well and exercising. Also, it helped to create community among the women in the group and other ESL-speaking women in Canada, says Nimmon.
"The idea was to create health literacy material that would be disseminated to all ESL-speaking immigrant women. They wrote the photonovela at a language level that was appropriate for them, so it is a fairly low language level. Therefore, immigrants of all language backgrounds can understand the English," says Nimmon.
A $3,000 grant covered the project expenses. The biggest portion, $1,000, was used to hire a person to put the manuscript together. Nimmon said at the time there was no software program available, but now "Comic Life" can be downloaded from the Internet for $30.
Another large expense was printing. She printed 50 copies for $500.
The rest of the money was used to hire the nurse to teach the class, provide food during work sessions, and other incidental expenses.
Each member of the women's group was assigned a task. For example, one was in charge of photography, another directed, and others were actors. A digital camera was used to take the photos.
The women felt a sense of empowerment by being given a chance to tell their story, says Nimmon.
The photonovela was distributed throughout immigrant centers in Vancouver, British Columbia. Staff members were so interested in the project, Nimmon did workshops on creating a photonovela and also wrote articles on the topic for their newsletters.
"I think it is a wonderful way to involve participants and users in the creation of health literacy materials. The only advice I have is do it," says Nimmon.
A photonovela became a master's project for Laura Nimmon, MA, a doctoral fellow with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in Victoria, British Columbia.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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