This project involved 30 grade seven students in photographing what they saw as images of ‘feeling safe and not so safe’ in their school environment as part of a study of sexual abuse in and around schools in Swaziland (Mitchell and Motoba-Tapela, 2004). Divided into small same sex groupings, the children were given simple point-and-shoot cameras and had approximately 45 minutes to take pictures on the school grounds. Their fascinating photographs included shots of ‘staged rape scenes’ in the bushes by several of the girls, to environmentally unsafe sites near the school (polluted water), and many pictures of toilets. In particular, when asked why they had taken photos of toilets, the girls spoke about the fact that you could be raped in the toilets, there is no privacy and hence they are dangerous, or they are dirty and unsafe.

Their choice of safe spaces though was also interesting. One group for example had photographed a girl sitting in her desk in front of the chalkboard on which was written ‘now safe’. The picture was a strong reminder that schools can also be safe havens. The teachers when they saw the photographs spoke about how surprised they were that so many learners found the toilets a dangerous area (something also uncovered by Heather Brookes in her work in South African schools). Similarly when members of the Child Protections Unit of UNICEF looked at these pictures they began to reframe some policy issues related to linking the work on Water and Sanitation to Sexual Violence projects.