Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Qualitative Research

Introduction: Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo continually flee to Uganda as they experience ongoing atrocities at home. After Sudan, DRC represented the largest proportion of refugee arrivals in 2023. Potential health challenges for refugees include poor sanitation, malaria, intestinal infections, mental health, vaccine preventable diseases, and substance abuse. Further, women refugees in urban settings are disproportionately burdened.

Methods: A qualitative study using Photovoice was conducted. The core theoretical bases of Photovoice of feminist theory, Freire's approaches to empowerment education, and documentary photography informed the study design. We conducted five meetings with participants viewed as participant co-researchers and audio-recorded discussions about why the photos were taken and what they revealed about participants' lives. Participatory analysis entailed participant choice of photos and group discussion of themes. Subsequently, the co-authors conducted inductive manual analysis of photos and verbatim transcripts and returned to participants for validation. Participant co-researchers selected one photo they wanted to illustrate about their experience publicly and attended a U.S. embassy event in Uganda for World Refugee Day 2023.

Results: Three emergent themes were housing insecurity, unmet health needs, and integration into Ugandan society. Acute housing needs of eviction and using a church for shelter were revealed during data collection. Unmet health needs included reproductive health education and care, healthcare for children, and access to basic care. Integration experiences ranged from perceived support to experiences of marginalization. Observational, process, and selected narrative data, captured the positive impact of participating in the Photovoice process as a health promoting experience.

Conclusions: Photovoice is an important qualitative research method that systematically and simultaneously serves as a health promoting intervention. Urban women refugees from DRC in Uganda have diverse experiences, are routinely marginalized, and experience unmet health needs. Therefore, study results may ultimately contribute improving health and social service interventions.