A Portrait of La Paz, Bolivia : Shot by its Children

During September 2012 during a visit to La Paz, Bolivia a small team of researchers worked with eighty children living in slum communities in La Paz. These children were as young as five and up to fifteen years. The project used a participatory multi-method design where children volunteered to research with the adults using a number of possible research tools including surveys, interviews, drawings, photography, roaming range maps and guided tours. The research design was negotiated firstly with the research staff from University of Western Sydney, Australia, staff from UNICEF Bolivia, the City of La Paz Municipal council and through the subsequent research workshop held with 30 local university social work students and staff at the council who were to be working in the field alongside the researchers from UWS and the child researchers. The research design incorporated a number of research activities that allowed children from a range of ages and abilities to participate. The research included filling in a child friendliness survey about their neighbourhood and city, a children’s independent mobility survey collecting data on children movements from children and their parents, children’s drawings of their neighborhood and dream place and an interview about these two drawings to explore their ideas about their place and their desires for a future child friendly city, children were given disposable cameras so they could create a photojournal researching a week in their life and an interview was held with them about the photographs. A number of children also went on a guided tour of their neighbourhood taking photographs throughout their journey. The three neighbourhoods that were the focus of the research study were all disadvantaged or slum communities on the very high reaches of the valley, close to the El Alto. The neighbourhoods were Cotahuma, Alto Tacagua and Munaypata. Cotahuma is a one of the main districts or zones of La Paz and runs from downtown up the side of the valley. This district includes the neighbourhood of Alto Taca Gua. Alto Taca Gua is on the highest reaches of the valley and is only accessible via steps either from the valley below or by driving to the El Alto parking and walking down into the neighbourhood. The community Munaypata is on the same side of the valley as Cotahuma but is much further to north west of the city. Munaypata is also on the highpoints of the valley and is bordered by the national highway that winds its way down from the Airport and the El Alto toward the central city district. This portrait of La Paz, was composed by Monique Malone using the photographs shot by the children of all three communities. These photographs portray the unexpected sides of everyday life in La Paz: the hardships, the celebrations, familial relations with humans and animals, simple encounters with the dirt, the light and the mountain. The results are raw, amusing and beautiful. This project was funded through support of the UNICEF child friendly cities project at University of Western Sydney. A UNICEF child friendly city and community is committed to the fullest implementation of the convention on the rights of the child. The aim is to improve the lives of children now by recognizing and realizing their rights – and hence transform for the better communities today and for the future. Building a child friendly city is a practical process which must engage actively with children and their real lives. Building a child friendly city cannot be achieved by governments alone it must be conducted in partnership with children, their families and with all key stakeholders in the community who affect children’s lives.