Our Work
TB Photovoice Programs Educate the World About TB
TB survivors must become part of the TB elimination solution. Their stories expose the harsh realities and teach us how to better prevent, diagnose, and cure TB. TB Photovoice programs help bring their voices out into the community to bring about positive change and education.
TB Photovoice Projects Sites
One of the main methods TB Photovoice uses to provide a compassionate place for those with TB to explore their experience and heal is called “Photovoice.” Photovoice is a process that encourages individuals to share words and photographs as a way to create positive changes within their communities and to influence decision makers to make changes on a larger scale.
Using what they learn through the photovoice process, group participants actively educate their local communities about the challenges of the TB experience. Participants are trained and encouraged to speak at community and international forums, where their perspectives as TB survivors provide new insights to tens of thousands of others beyond their own communities.
Since 2006, TB Photovoice has provided support for 16 TB Photovoice projects sites in eight countries including: Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. Contact us to start a TB Photovoice project in your community.
TB Voices Project
TB survivors rarely have a chance to share their experiences because speaking out often brings shame, misunderstanding and stigma. TB Photovoice wants to change that.
In 2013-14, the TB Voices Project documented the stories of 28 people in Washington State impacted by TB. These stories became the cornerstone of a national TB awareness campaign. It included a traveling exhibition, community presentations, an interactive website with video and audio clips of the interviews, and an educational TB video. The campaign reached an extensive audience, including NPR listeners, members of congress, TB health professionals and the local community.
The success of the TB Voices Project led to TB organizations across the country requesting that it be replicated in their communities. The New York Health Department displayed the TB Voices Exhibition for two months in various TB clinics throughout the city in the Spring of 2016. Internationally, the exhibition was on display in 2015 at the 19th Annual Conference of The Union North America Region in Vancouver, Canada , and at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Cape, Town, South Africa. Contact us to start a TB Voices project in your community. View and share our TB Voices project magazines.
Nuestra Casa Initiative
TB Photovoice sites become powerful TB-outreach “megaphones” that educate people outside a single community. For example, in 2009, nine photovoice groups along the U.S.-Mexico border joined forces to create Nuestra Casa, a traveling exhibition that shared TB insights and knowledge with communities across the U.S. and Mexico.
Ultimately, The Nuestra Casa Exhibition reached more than 55,000 people worldwide after it was showcased at international TB conferences and at the CDC Global Odyssey Museum. Tens of thousands learned about the harsh realities of TB from a survivor’s unique standpoint.
Sharing TB Stories with TB Decision Makers
TB Photovoice participants meet with international TB experts, give presentations, display photo galleries and exhibitions, and participate in community forums. We encourage key leaders to promote the perspectives, ideas and visions of persons affected by TB.
Thousands of TB advocates and professionals have engaged with TB Photovoice participants at the following international conferences:
International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2007, 2009, 2010, 2014, upcoming 2015
World AIDS Conference, Washington, D.C. 2012
RESULTS International Conference, Washington, D.C. 2014
National TB Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. 2008, 2010, 2014
Washington State TB Controller Conference, 2011, 2014
Regional Conference for the Union Against TB and Lung Disease, Vancouver, BC Canada, 2015
View and share our TB Voices Project magazines and watch our video.