EXPERIENCE
This workstream is one of three iterative workstreams around which the work of GEMMS will centre. It is led by Pedzisayi Mangezvo, Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, and M. Sivakami.
The experiences workstream centres around conducting research with migrants in precarious situations, as well as health workers and service providers who work with these populations, to generate new knowledge about:
- The burden and lived experiences of the intersecting risks of gendered violence and poor mental health; and
- Socio-economic determinants and contextual mechanisms that shape gendered violence and poor mental health risks, including the distribution and accessibility of resources that can help reduce gendered violence and enhance mental health.
Our research questions include:
- What is the burden and lived experience of gendered violence and poor mental health risks among migrants in precarious situations? How do these risks change with movement across time and places?
- What are the socio-economic, geo-political contextual mechanisms underlying gendered violence and poor mental health risks among migrants?
- What are the availability, distribution and access barriers to resources and services to address these risks and enhance well-being? And
- What methods and technologies are effective in understanding risks and responding to the needs of migrants as they move across time and place?
This workstream involves collecting cross-sectional and longitudinal data via two distinct but complementary methodological approaches. The first is a quantitative cross-sectional survey and longitudinal phone tracing study on prevalence and determinants of gendered violence and mental health in India, Kachin state in Myanmar, Manicaland in Zimbabwe, and along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional survey will identify the social and neuropsychological consequences of gendered violence, while the longitudinal phone tracing survey will allow for an exploration into the ways in which these consequences change over time, and across the different spaces migrants travel.
The second methodological approach will involve ongoing engagement in participatory action research (PAR). A subset of the population surveyed will be invited to participate in more in-depth qualitative enquiry. This will involve in-depth qualitative interviews utilising the Adversity Grid to examine the household, community and institutional levels that structure experience of everyday violence and psycho-social well-being. These approaches will help establish the groups of participants who will be involved in co-designing a set of actions addressing different drivers of gendered violence and mental health (for the intervention workstream). Additionally, PAR will yield information on resources and assets that participants use or the barriers in accessing these.
We plan to use participatory resource mapping and photovoice - photovoice is an audiovisual method gaining popularity as a promising visual/ image-based method increasingly utilised by researchers, policy makers and practitioners to engage affected people and communities in studying, planning for, and/or tackling global health and development challenges. Its focus on collective production of knowledge towards social change, especially involving those who are excluded from policy processes, is particularly amenable to our project’s objective and ethos.
This workstream involves collecting cross-sectional and longitudinal data via two distinct but complementary methodological approaches. The first is a quantitative cross-sectional survey and longitudinal phone tracing study on prevalence and determinants of gendered violence and mental health in India, Kachin state in Myanmar, Manicaland in Zimbabwe, and along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional survey will identify the social and neuropsychological consequences of gendered violence, while the longitudinal phone tracing survey will allow for an exploration into the ways in which these consequences change over time, and across the different spaces migrants travel.
The second methodological approach will involve ongoing engagement in participatory action research (PAR). A subset of the population surveyed will be invited to participate in more in-depth qualitative enquiry. This will involve in-depth qualitative interviews utilising the Adversity Grid to examine the household, community and institutional levels that structure experience of everyday violence and psycho-social well-being. These approaches will help establish the groups of participants who will be involved in co-designing a set of actions addressing different drivers of gendered violence and mental health (for the intervention workstream). Additionally, PAR will yield information on resources and assets that participants use or the barriers in accessing these.
We plan to use participatory resource mapping and photovoice - photovoice is an audiovisual method gaining popularity as a promising visual/ image-based method increasingly utilised by researchers, policy makers and practitioners to engage affected people and communities in studying, planning for, and/or tackling global health and development challenges. Its focus on collective production of knowledge towards social change, especially involving those who are excluded from policy processes, is particularly amenable to our project’s objective and ethos.
📷 Madoda Mkhobeni