In spite of advances in all spheres of human life, majority of the world continues to suffer from hunger, poverty, and disease on a daily basis. Facilitating social change to create a more equitable society, though possible, continues to be an uphill struggle. I began this study seeking to understand how issues of health, gender and human rights can be communicated more efficaciously. Further, I sought to enhance our understanding of how poor, isolated, and marginalized community members perceive, experience, and participate in social change efforts.
In so doing, I present a case study of Minga Peru, a non-profit community-based, communication for social change organization that promotes social justice, gender equality and human rights in the Peruvian Amazon. Central to Minga’s efforts is the entertainment-education based radio program Bienvenida Salud, which is complemented by a network of over 56 peer facilitators. Minga also trains women in income generation skills such as handicraft production and fish and poultry farming.
This interpretive study draws upon both feminist and participatory research paradigms. The findings are based on six weeks of fieldwork in Peru, divided between Lima and the Loreto Region. The research design utilizes ethnographic methods including interviews, focus group discussions, audience letters, and participatory sketches and skits, involving a total of 124 participants and 160 hours of observation. I co-construct my analysis with the narratives of the Minga team, including its co-founders, program implementers and peer facilitators, and men, women, and adolescents from riverine communities. The findings resulted in 14 themes clustered around three research questions.
Through my findings, I put forth that enabling social change necessitates an alternative approach that privileges community perspectives. Further, social change initiatives benefit from being contextualized and cognizant of the lived realities of the people they are working with. Finally, transformation of hegemonic gender norms occurs through a holistic understanding of gender as including men and social structures. Renegotiating established power hierarchies leads to resistance and conflict as men and women begin to gain agency and contest the normative order. Ultimately, the research strengthens the reflexive and interconnected relationship between theory-praxis.