Young Cities – Safe Spaces: Transformative Images

Social Purpose Storytelling is a powerful tool when it comes to social action and change. Using images, dramatizations and short sentences to discuss problems and look at possible solutions allows for a personal response to develop, rendering the reader partial to the outcomes.

The East African Institute of Aga Khan University in partnership with Korogocho-based and youth-led K-Youth Media are deploying video and photography in a social purpose storytelling campaign to raise awareness and motivate public dialogue, consensus and action on open, child-friendly spaces in densely populated neighborhoods of Nairobi’s Eastlands. Although these neighborhoods are bustling with enterprise and ingenuity we could do better for our children.

Last week we had a great meeting with senior officers from Nairobi County. The government of Nairobi through its Safer Nairobi Initiative is supportive of a focus on making Nairobi the children’s capital. Learning from successful community-led initiatives like Dandora Transformation League and Place Makers we can drive meaningful participation and consensus for urban transformation.

The task of making cities must be by consultation and consensus to, identify, protect and improve child-friendly spaces in every city neighborhood. But most of all, we must see our cities through the eyes of children, and we must involve them.