Child Friendly Bolivia: Researching with Children in La Paz, Bolivia

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. About 63% of the Bolivian population lives in urban areas; of this group, 61% lives in slums. Children and youth constitute almost half of the total population in Bolivia with the corresponding national percentage living in poverty. In 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 neighbourhood 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. Through these research workshops and the children’s research activities an abundance of rich, descriptive and visual data of how Bolivian children experience their place and their visions and dreams for a child friendly and sustainable future were collected. This report provides an overview of findings organized using themes of freedom and play; dirt and dangers; mountains and trees; family, friends and pets; school and the city; dreams of a child friendly city. The findings revealed that children want a home that is safe and where they feel loved and they can have companionship, a place where there is green grass and flowers, a park or playground close to their home where they can play with their friends, a clean and safe neighbourhood where they can walk freely without fear and teachers at school who listen to their ideas. The final section identifies themes for a child friendly city: a child friendly city has places to play sport, has people who care for you, has animals, has parks and playgrounds, is clean and safe and is green.