Abstract
Introduction
With 1.4 million people living with HIV (PLWH), Kenya has one of the largest HIV epidemics in the world (UNAIDS, 2023). Despite comprising only 20% of Kenya’s total population (National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), 2024), adolescents aged 15 to 24 years accounted for 41% of all new HIV infections in 2022 (UNFPA Kenya, 2024). Adolescent girls and young women comprised 78% of these infections (UNFPA Kenya, 2024). There is growing focus on the linkages between climate change, related extreme weather events, and HIV vulnerabilities. Among adult populations, extreme weather events such as drought and flooding have been linked with elevated HIV acquisition risks through condomless and transactional sex, sexual and gender-based violence, reduced access to health services, and increased migration (Epstein et al., 2023; Logie et al., 2024; Nagata et al., 2022; Ochieng Arunda et al., 2024; World Health Organisation, 2024). However, knowledge gaps persist regarding causal pathways from climate change to HIV, with a notable lack of attention to youth experiences. This is particularly important to examine in contexts such as Kenya, where adolescents are living at the nexus of high HIV vulnerability and increasing exposure to extreme weather events.
Adolescence is life stage marked by profound biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and emotional transformation (Committee on the Neurobiological and Socio-behavioral Science of Adolescent Development and Its Applications et al., 2019). It is also a period during which access to socioeconomic resources and power is often limited, and coping and resilience capacities are still developing (Earnshaw et al., 2022). As a result, adolescents—who already encounter structural barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health and HIV services (UNFPA Kenya, 2024)—are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and related extreme weather events. This vulnerability is especially concerning in contexts like Kenya, where the intensifying effects of climate change are well-documented. Increased rainfall has contributed to greater intensity and frequency of flooding and droughts (Kogo et al., 2021), harming agricultural production and increasing food insecurity (Kogo et al., 2021; NET, 2020), as well as raising risks of mudslides and landslides (The World Bank Group, 2021). Rising temperatures have worsened and prolonged Kenya’s periods of drought, including impacts from the 4-year historic drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, the most serious drought in 70 years (NASA Earth Observatory, 2022; The World Bank Group, 2021). Additionally, the recent 2024 El-Nino rains and flooding contributed to crisis levels of food insecurity among 1.2 million people in Kenya (World Health Organisation, 2024).
Digital storytelling is a promising approach to generate understanding of lived experiences of youth in the context of climate change-related factors and HIV vulnerabilities. Initially developed to harness the power of digital media for personal narrative creation and sharing, digital storytelling is increasingly used in research contexts. A digital story is an audio-visual clip, generally between 2 and 5 min in length, that brings together images and voice-over narration and other audio (e.g., music, sound effects) (De Jager et al., 2017). Typically, a digital story narrative focuses on a specific experience or incident in the storyteller’s life and carries a reflective and emotional tone (Davey & Benjaminsen, 2021). It is a particularly effective tool for engaging marginalized groups, as it offers the opportunity for meaning-making, education, exposure to diverse perspectives, and generating new kinds of understanding (De Jager et al., 2017; Vegt et al., 2024). First, through creative engagement with narration, visual elements, and audio, creating a digital story can provide the platform for participants to engage in reflection and interpretation of a particular experience, including sensitive, stigmatized, and challenging topics (Davey & Benjaminsen, 2021; De Jager et al., 2017; Vegt et al., 2024).
Second, digital stories can provide rich, descriptive insights into issues or topics that may be challenging to explore through conventional research approaches (Davey & Benjaminsen, 2021), including, for instance, stigmatized health issues such as HIV. Indeed, digital storytelling processes can be designed to reduce stigma through creating a conducive environment that centres the lived experiences of a stigmatized community (e.g., using inclusive images), and predefining and guiding story elements for participants to express experiences and impacts of stigma (Vegt et al., 2024). Digital stories can provide the opportunity to share personal or collective narratives experienced by marginalized groups that may be overlooked in dominant discourse (De Jager et al., 2017). Sharing these overlooked narratives can serve the function of highlighting new perspectives and in turn increase understanding and support toward marginalized communities (Vegt et al., 2024). Indeed, a global review of participatory visual methods, including digital storytelling, with community health workers identified these approaches could enhance community understanding of health issues as well as their own reflective practice, and could facilitate social action based on new knowledge generated of local issues and priorities (O’Donovan et al., 2019).
Third, the practice of digital storytelling, when conducted ethically and collaboratively, has the potential to dismantle traditional power hierarchies associated with conventional researcher-researched dynamics. Participants are regarded as the experts of their own experience and play an active role in the design and production of knowledge (Davey & Benjaminsen, 2021; De Jager et al., 2017). Others note potential therapeutic benefits of creating digital stories, including being able to express one’s story in diverse ways (audio, visual, narratives) that can facilitate deeper understanding of their experiences among others, sparking a new understanding of their own experiences, facilitating healing through opening up and sharing—particularly a stigmatized issue, and supporting reflection and integration of past experiences with their current life (Laing et al., 2017).
Digital storytelling has been used in education on the environment and sustainability and may be particularly helpful in fostering reflection and dialogue on
Yet growing evidence signals the benefits of digital storytelling within African contexts, including addressing health-related issues such as HIV, community priorities, and social justice. For instance, a participatory action research study in Uganda found that digital storytelling was culturally appropriate and aligned with traditional oral storytelling approaches, that it could be designed in a flexible way to address ethical and logistic barriers, and that training local facilitators had the potential to advance community goals and priorities (Yan et al., 2021). Another digital storytelling study in Uganda with women experiencing obstetric fistula noted its potential for healthcare provider training and policy advocacy (Hill, 2008). Digital storytelling was applied in South African settings to explore issues including education and research (Stewart & Ivala, 2017), social justice (Eriksson & Barnes, 2018; Gachago et al., 2014; Warren, 2016), and, in the context of HIV, HIV-related stigma (Mnisi, 2015) and living with HIV at large (Treffry-Goatley et al., 2016; Willis et al., 2014). In Kenya, a digital storytelling project examined socio-cultural issues and practices in everyday lives of people in the Komotobo region, such as traditional food preparation and beautifying practices (Ambala, 2016). The author suggests that producing digital storytelling about ways of life and traditions may in fact contribute to community building through providing “a platform that could offer material for everyday conversations, and may potentially encourage debate and critical thinking on communal issues” (Ambala, 2016, p. 54).
Little is known about the process and potential benefits of digital storytelling on climate change and/or climate change linkages with HIV—a stigmatized health issue—with youth in East African contexts affected by both climate change and HIV, such as Kenya. To address these knowledge gaps, we applied digital storytelling methods to amplify youth lived experiences of climate change, extreme weather events, and associated HIV vulnerabilities in Kenya. This article aims to describe the development and implementation of a digital storytelling video workshop methodology with youth in two Kenyan regions (Nairobi, Kisumu) that produced narratives of youth experiences on climate change, extreme weather events, and linkages with HIV vulnerabilities.
Methodology
Case Description
This methodology was developed in a 2023 collaboration between Kenyan youth and two community-based organizations (CBOs), the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) and Elim Trust, and a research team at the University of Toronto in Canada. We developed a two-day digital storytelling video workshop for youth (aged 16–24 years) that we implemented in two climate-affected regions of Kenya: (1) informal settlements in the urban setting of Nairobi; and (2) rural and peri-rural fishing community areas outside of Kisumu on Lake Victoria. This participatory visual digital storytelling method was developed to amplify youth voices on their experiences of climate change and sexual health, including documenting youth recommendations for solutions for reducing climate-related HIV vulnerabilities. Building on existing approaches to youth engagement through digital storytelling (Cunsolo Willox et al., 2013; Finnegan, 2023; Gubrium, 2009), we sought to customize our approach for the Kenyan context, and for our specific focus on climate change, sexual health and HIV. We also aimed to produce high quality media, showcasing youth audiovisual expressions, which could potentially be harnessed for emotionally impactful knowledge translation tools. This methodology consists of two sequential phases. In Phase 1, we conducted interviews (
Sociodemographic Characteristics of Digital Storytelling Participants by Location and Population Type in Kenya (
Digital Storytelling Workshops Methods
Overview of Digital Storytelling Video Workshop Sessions on Climate Change and HIV with Youth in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya.
The first three sessions of the digital storytelling video workshop introduced youth participants to climate change and its potential impacts on their sexual health, building on Phase 1 findings. Session 1, ‘
Session 2,
Example of Photos and SenseMaker Narratives Shared in Digital Storytelling Workshops on Climate Change and HIV Vulnerabilities with Youth in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya.
Goal 2. Build Youth Capacity in Identifying Solutions Through Storytelling
Sessions 4 through 7 of the digital storytelling workshop focused on building youth capacity in identifying solutions through storytelling; this was facilitated through using tools such as 6-word stories, storyboarding, drawing, and photography. These visual storytelling methods are youth-friendly, strengths-based approaches to empowering youth to identify solutions to their experiences of how climate change affects their sexual health. Session 4,
In Session 5,
Storyboarding Process Shared in Digital Storytelling Workshop.
In Session 6,
Goal 3. Build Youth Capacity in Audiovisual Production
Sessions 8–11 focused on building youth capacity in audiovisual production. We conducted a user-friendly and hands-on approach to skills training through media making to provide youth with tools for writing and recording narration, video editing, and creating sound effects to share their stories on issues that matter to them and the changes they want to see. Session 8,
In Session 9,
Goal 4. Promote Advocacy and Awareness-Raising, Including Peer Education
The final four workshop sessions focused on advocacy and awareness-raising, including peer education. This section emphasized generating audiovisual materials for education and advocacy. As the culminating section of the workshop, we held a video screening to celebrate the youth participants’ achievements and create meaningful opportunities for peer education on the effects of climate change on their sexual health. In Session 12,
Findings
Illustrative Examples from Youth Regarding Perceived Benefits of Participating in Climate Change and HIV-Related Digital Storytelling Video Workshop Sessions in Nairobi, Kenya (
Participants shared that, before the workshop, their understanding of the connections between HIV and climate change was limited. The workshop provided valuable information on both topics and explained how climate change can impact sexual health outcomes. One young sex worker participant reflected on their prior assumptions about climate change, explaining, “I came, I didn’t know what climate change is, I knew that rain is a normal thing and I didn’t know how to differentiate ‘bad rains’ and ‘good rains.’ I now understand the difference.” Similarly, another young sex worker participant remarked, “For the two days I have learned something about climate change and how it can affect us at home and some of the things we can do to make it better.” Other participants noted their newfound understanding of specific environmental challenges, with a young mother saying, “I didn’t know a lot of things but now I have learnt a lot. I have learnt about climate change, extreme heat and everything that we have been taught.”
For many, these new insights extended to the broader implications of climate change. As one young mother explained, “I have learnt how climate affects us as young mothers, it is something that we didn’t know. But hopefully we shall learn more as we continue.” The workshop also helped participants grasp the links between climate change and HIV, with many noting how the two issues intersect. A sex worker participant reflected, “We have learned about HIV and climate change. We didn’t understand how the two are interlinked. The facilitators have taught us well.” A participant from the gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) group shared that they were surprised by the connection, saying, “Today, I learned a lot. I learned the relation between climate change [and] HIV. I didn’t think those two could relate, but actually they do.” This new awareness extended to the practical challenges faced by people living with HIV, as a Mathare young man participant noted, “If there is flooding or drought, people under ARVs medication are at risk and we should therefore care for them.”
Developing New Skills
Participants expressed interest in the storytelling aspects of the workshop and appreciation for the audiovisual production skills acquired. For instance, a young mother participant described learning from the 6-word story activity: “Yesterday I learnt the six-word story, how I can form a story using different words but I am trying to bring out one message. I have learnt when there is a problem, there has to be consequences. It can be one problem but have so many branches. The root is the problem, the branches are the consequences but the flowers are the solutions that will cause me to be brightened.” (Young mother DST participant)
Many participants shared that they plan to continue using these skills in their daily lives beyond the workshop. One gbMSM participant was particularly captivated by the process of storyboarding, stating, “Today was very interesting. I’m going to take home the aspect of storyboarding. It’s very, very nice to come up with pictures that leads to a story in such a simple way and sort of show how everything is connected. That was so interesting.” Others echoed this excitement, with another gbMSM participant reflecting, “Storyboarding is very interesting. You have to be creative, think outside the box.” Participants from the Mathare young men’s group also valued these skills, with one young man noting, “I am a musician. I didn’t know that one can mix sound effects behind the image, but now I know. Even in the streets, I have gotten a good idea here which we can implement with my friends whom we sing with.”
Building Community Connections
In addition to learning new skills, the workshop created opportunities for participants to meet fellow community members and develop meaningful friendships, fostering a stronger sense of community. A gbMSM participant reflected on the inclusivity of the workshop, noting, “I loved the workshop. Everything was amazing. There’s a lot of interactions and having fun around and, most importantly, feeling safe as a queer person. It is so liberating.” Others emphasized the diversity of the participants, with one participant from the Mathare young women’s group remarking, “Today I am happy to have met with many people. You see we are all different, we are from different places. I am happy that we have met.” Others had the opportunity to reflect on their existing social connections and how they can leverage this to acquire support: “If you have a problem you shouldn’t be silent but you should speak out so that you get a solution to the problem. If you keep silent you will suffer a lot. Personally if I have an issue, I should go to my close friend or anywhere I can get help so that at least I am safe, instead of loitering around where there are so many risks.” (Young mother DST participant)
Feeling More Empowered
Following the workshop, participants reported feeling more empowered, equipped with knowledge, and motivated to engage with the issues discussed, particularly around self-care, advocacy, and speaking out against injustice. A Mathare young woman participant expressed how the workshop helped her find her voice, saying, “Today I have been empowered. I have learnt a lot of things. I am happy that my story which I shared the other day [has] been shared here.” This newfound confidence was echoed by another Mathare young woman participant who reflected, “I have learnt how to be empowered, i.e. having courage. Don’t keep silent when something happens such as rape. Report it to someone who can help you.” Young mothers, in particular, found the workshop transformative, with one young mother participant stating, “I have learnt that you should not stay where you are being beaten. It is not a must that you stay there. You should walk out and look for a better place where you can fit in. It is not a must that you be dependent on somebody.”
There was a deep sense of gratitude from participants for being included in the workshop. They valued being heard, having a platform to share their thoughts, and learning from facilitators who took the time to listen and engage with their perspectives. A Mathare young man participant expressed this appreciation, saying, “I am very glad. I am also glad that you are listening to us. It is not easy to find people listening to the youth because everyone is busy. But you have taken your time and have come. You have called us together and have listened to us which is good.” A sex worker participant echoed this gratitude, reflecting, “Thank you for inviting me here, at least I have learned something, I have not left this place empty. When I go back to the community, I will teach my fellow sex workers whenever they are in trouble, where to report rape incidences and where they can get help.”
Discussion
The current study documented the process of using qualitative findings to develop and implement digital storytelling workshops with youth in two climate-affected regions in Kenya. Our project is unique with its focus on the intersection of climate change and HIV in a low and middle-income context. Our methodological approach, including role-playing, storyboarding, drawing images, writing narration, video editing, video screening, and post-screening dialogue, adds to the current digital storytelling approaches used in the fields of climate change (Finnegan, 2023; Haynes & Tanner, 2015; Liguori et al., 2021) and HIV (Mnisi, 2015; Treffry-Goatley et al., 2016; Willis et al., 2014) to show its relevance for addressing both of these issues concurrently with youth in Kenya. We also provided youth opportunities for reflection and self-expression around sensitive and stigmatized topics such as sexual health and sexual and gender-based violence, and participant reflections noted a range of benefits from participating in digital storytelling, including the opportunity to build new insights, skills, community connections, and increased empowerment.
This paper builds on the rich history of research on the benefits of participating in the process of digital storytelling. For instance, participants in our study discussed digital storytelling benefits included increased awareness and insights of social-environmental and health issues, particularly regarding climate change and HIV. This corroborates past digital storytelling studies on how the process itself of creating these stories can raise awareness of health issues (Hill, 2008), including HIV (Mnisi, 2015; Treffry-Goatley et al., 2016), as well as generate new insights into one’s own lived experiences of health issues (Laing et al., 2017). Digital storytelling in general was described in Uganda as an approach whereby marginalized communities, including those with low literacy, could both receive and share information and knowledge that was contextually relevant (Yan et al., 2021). Participant reflections in our study on what they learned about climate change reflects findings from a United Kingdom study that digital storytelling approaches can increase knowledge about national and local contexts of climate change, in turn facilitating community members to contextualize these larger climate issues within one’s own meaningful lived experiences—in effect advancing creative, participatory science (Liguori et al., 2021). Another study on climate futures in the United Kingdom reflected new understandings regarding harmony between people and their lived environments through the digital storytelling experience (Finnegan, 2023). Our findings add to this knowledge base by signaling how this approach can provide opportunities for participants to reflect on qualitative data about complex issues (climate change and HIV), learn more about the issues themselves and their interconnections, in order to reflect on how they may impact themselves or people like themselves.
Second, study participants appreciated learning storytelling and audio-visual skills from the digital storytelling workshop. This aligns with findings from a study with adolescents living with HIV in Zimbabwe, who similarly were able to acquire confidence and self-belief through the process of learning photography, film-making, and storytelling skills, newly viewing “themselves as capable young people with capacity to acquire new skills” (Willis et al., 2014, p. 134). Similarly, teaching digital storytelling skills to a group of Ugandan story facilitators found that participants believed other Ugandans would be interested in, and benefit from, digital story creation and recommended further expansion of in-country training that addressed needs to learn narrative storytelling alongside the information and technology dimension of producing a digital story (Yan et al., 2021).
Third, study participants discussed benefits of creating new community connections through the digital storytelling workshops. Other researchers have reported the multi-faceted ways that creating and sharing digital stories may have therapeutic benefits, such as identifying mutual hopes, aspirations, and sources of support (Willis et al., 2014); “discovering unexpected common ground” (Liguori et al., 2021, p. 12), and offering space to discuss communal issues (Ambala, 2016). Lang et al. (2019) discuss the powerful role that creating and sharing digital stories with others can play in feeling understood by others (Laing et al., 2017), and reinforce that the sharing and debriefing of the stories creates opportunities to be witnessed and affirmed. Our findings add to this literature by suggesting that the very occasion to come together to create and share collective stories with other youth with similar lived experiences offered opportunities for building new friendships and peer connections.
Fourth, participants discussed feelings of empowerment, awareness of rights, and motivation to act—particularly regarding reporting sexual and gender-based violence—reflecting increased agency. Other researchers have documented how creating and sharing digital stories can foster feelings of empowerment and pride, and how digital stories can be used for advocacy (Lang et al., 2019). Prior research with adolescents in Zimbabwe documented increased feelings of control, freedom, coping, and optimism following creating digital stories (Willis et al., 2014), and youth in South Africa discussed the need for challenging stigma, feeling pride, and acknowledging their power and resilience after screening and discussing their digital stories (Mnisi, 2015). Another South African study noted that youth digital stories engaged the notion of being empowered by anti-retroviral therapy treatment—visually portrayed as armour—and in fact chose background music that had been used in anti-apartheid media (Treffry-Goatley et al., 2016). Drought-related participatory storytelling in the United Kingdom contributed to public engagement, dialogue, field visits (farm, nature reserve, pumping station), future storytelling workshops (photography, storyboarding), and performance events focused on the nexus of flood/drought and generating views on future solutions (Liguori et al., 2021). The United Kingdom climate futures study also noted that many digital stories include hope and calls to action at the end of the videos, and the process of digital storytelling creation was described as leading to more optimism and focus on collective (vs. individual) responses (Finnegan, 2023).
The methods and reflections shared in this digital storytelling study can inform other projects related to digital storytelling, HIV vulnerabilities, and climate change experiences with youth in similar climate and HIV affected contexts. We provide detailed methods of how qualitative findings can inform digital storytelling processes, in a similar way that qualitative findings can inform participatory comic book mapping (Logie et al., 2023), and can be a tool for enriching the lives, knowledge, and opportunities of participants as well as producing valuable research and policy insights (Lang et al., 2019; Liguori et al., 2021).
There were also study limitations. Participant reflections were gathered at all workshops except for the workshop held in Kisumu. As the only workshop conducted outside of Nairobi, it is possible that participants in Kisumu had unique feedback or perspectives that could have contributed to improving the digital storytelling approach outlined in this report. Participants created collective digital stories, so there may have been some perspectives that were not included that would have been highlighted if participants worked individually. We did not have the opportunity to explore how these digital stories could be effective in increasing knowledge, compassion, and action among health and social care providers, policy makers, and other key stakeholders (Lang et al., 2019; Liguori et al., 2021; Vegt et al., 2024), and this is an area for future research.
Lessons learned for HIV and climate-related digital storytelling for youth in a low and middle-income setting such as Kenya include: the integration of qualitative findings (photos, participant narratives) with HIV and climate change information into a multi-method participatory training; group-based approaches that can foster connection and new friendships; audio-visual and storytelling skill building; and the platform for sharing stories and reflecting on power and agency. We aimed to create a process that was both speculative and reflective, engaging youth to reflect on past experiences while also envisioning their hopes for the future. By tailoring digital storytelling techniques to align with our project goals – namely, understanding and addressing the impacts of climate change on youth sexual health in the Kenyan context – our approach supported diverse modes of collaborative creative expression, encouraged youth self-expression, fostered relationship-building and capacity-building, and promoted youth peer education.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental Material - Developing Digital Stories with Youth on Climate Change and HIV Vulnerabilities in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya: Methods and Reflections
Supplemental Material for Developing Digital Stories with Youth on Climate Change and HIV Vulnerabilities in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya: Methods and Reflections by Carmen H. Logie, Sarah Van Borek, Aryssa Hasham, Julia Kagunda, Humphres Evelia, Beldine Omondi, Arnold Asava, Maryline Okuto, Clara Gachoki, Mercy Chege, Mumbi Mwangi, and Lesley Gittings in International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
ORCID iDs
Ethical Statement
Funding
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Data Availability Statement
Supplemental Material
References
Supplementary Material
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