Our Projects

Local Partner: Casa Mantay

Location: San Jeronimo, Cusco, Peru

Nayaraq worked with a community of 15 adolescent mothers primarily from Peru’s Cusco region with the goal of supporting young women heal from past traumas and better understand themselves as protagonists in their future stories. Young women engaged in a 16-week workshop with sections on familial communication, dreams and goals, and identity, leveraging PhotoVoice to limit accessibility issues due to literacy constraints. The workshop culminated in a final “presentation” whereby each participant shared a story, photo, or performance she felt best reflected herself. 

Methods Used: PhotoVoice, community-based interviews, collage, dance, written storytelling

Impact: Each young woman was interviewed in pre- and post- assessment style, including a survey to quantify feelings of empowerment, agency, locus of control, sentiments about education, and self-esteem. All metrics increased as a result of the workshop, with 92% of women experiencing an overall increase in self-reported feelings of empowerment and agency as a result. All young women expressed they would recommend such a workshop to a friend, and the vast majority intended to continue sharing their stories after workshop close.

Local Partner: Minga Peru

Location: Iquitos, Loreto, Peru

The Loreto region (Amazon jungle) of Peru is known for the highest rates of poverty, teenage pregnancy, and domestic violence in Peru. Nayaraq worked with 50+ youth across 8 different rural jungle communities using Photovoice workshops to understand their strengths, challenges, dreams for themselves, and dreams for their communities in order to challenge the narrative and encourage the power youth have to make a social change in their communities. More than 20 female community promoters were also trained in Photovoice methodology and brought the workshop to their communities.

Methods Used: Photovoice, community-centered interviews, focus groups, radio

Impact: Data from Photovoice workshops was used as internal M&E for the organization. Additionally, data and interview content was used to design a youth leadership bootcamp and customized radio programming reaching 300,000+ across the Amazon region. A grant of $24,000 was given from the US Embassy in Peru for the continuation of this work.

Local Partner: Regional Government

Location: San Pedro Mixtapec, Oaxaca, Mexico

In recent years, feminicide and domestic violence have emerged as priority areas for the Mexican government as staggering rates of violence against women have continued to increase nationwide. Therefore, Mexico launched the #AlasParaElCambio initiative focused on better understanding issues of domestic violence and empowering survivors to advise community leaders on how best to address them. Nayaraq was brought on by the regional government of San Pedro Mixtapec to run a train the trainer workshop on incorporating storytelling methodology into #AlasParaElCambio work being carried out in Oaxaca.

Methods Used: Train the trainer, adapted PhotoVoice

Impact: Successful training of 30+ community leaders across regional governments and local NGOs prepared to adapt Nayaraq methodology into their work with domestic violence survivors. Nayaraq to continue working with San Pedro Mixtapec to support efforts of establishing the first refugee home for domestic violence survivors in the region.

Local Partners: AWARE, Catholic Charities of America, Villanova University, North Hunterdon High School 

Location: Virtual (USA)

The political climate surrounding migrant workers has never been more complex; though immigration policy remains controversial, COVID-19 has forced the USA to reckon with the idea of what type of work is “essential”. Migrant farm workers have topped the list of workers who must risk their lives so that the rest of the country may eat, and yet our understanding of them lacks nuance and diversity. AWARE requested Nayaraq support to share oral histories of migrant farmworkers, with a focus on the perspective of women who are juggling both paid and unpaid labor as well as questions of family, legality, and vulnerability. 

Methods Used: Train the trainer, oral history, adapted PhotoVoice, community-based interviews

Impact: Ongoing project – Empowering, community-style interviews to be conducted across 4 months with ~10 agricultural workers, with direct control given over storytelling style and cadence to the farm workers themselves. AWARE hopes to produce an informative podcast to be shared widely, in the hopes that policymakers consider a more human perspective when considering issues of immigration, essential work, and healthcare in the future.

Local Partner: Socios En Salud / Partners In Health

Location: Carabayllo and Comas, Lima, Peru

While the urban slums of Lima, Peru have the highest rates of tuberculosis in the region, stigma of the disease prevents individuals from seeking screening and treatment. Those who do seek care are predominately women. To better understand gendered barriers to health, research and storytelling outreach was deployed to encourage equitable participation. Through interviews, public art, and storytelling methodology including Forum Theater, community members were incentivized to come together and mobilize to get screened and treatment for tuberculosis. 

Methods Used: Forum theater, community-based interviews, public art

Impact: Interviews with community members were used to determine strengths and needs of vulnerable populations impacted most by the health campaign. Additionally, arts and storytelling initiatives were built on to be the foundation of the campaign, impacting more than 500,000+ individuals in the greater northern Lima region.

Local Partner: She is the Universe

Location: Global (focus countries: Dominican Republic and Brazil)

She Is The Universe has been facilitating “Girls’ Circles” and “Mastermind” workshops for a group of young women from all over the world, focused on self-development, storytelling, social impact, and community-building. Nayaraq is working with She Is The Universe to train these young women to become facilitators in order to run workshops (including adapted Girls’ Circles and Masterminds) for young women in their own communities. The current cohort of facilitators includes 4 trainees from the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

Methods Used: Photovoice, Train the Trainer

Impact: This series of ongoing month-long facilitation trainings will prepare young women to lead workshops in their own communities and amplify voices of other young women within their own volunteer organizations, including the Mariposa Foundation and Girl Up.