Browsing by Autor "Diana Higuera-Mendieta"

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Our Voice in a Rural Community: Empowering Colombian Rural Adolescents to Advocate for Community Well-being through Citizen Science
(Research Square (United States), 2022) Felipe Montes; Ana María Guerra; Diana Higuera-Mendieta; Eduardo De la Vega‐Taboada; Abby C. King; Ann Banchoff; Augusto César Rodríguez Maturana; Olga L. Sarmiento
Abstract Backround: Santa Ana is home to an Afro-descendant rural population of the island of Barú in Cartagena, Colombia. While a popular area for tourism, Santa Ana’s population is affected by multidimensional poverty, precarious work conditions, homelessness, broken streets and sewer systems, limited quality education, and lack of recreation and sport spaces. While Santa Ana’s Community Action Board aims to unify efforts and resources to solve these problems, the state’s capacity to meet the requirements of the Board is limited. Methods: We evaluated the relationship between healthy lifestyles and characteristics of Santa Ana’s school using the Our Voice Citizen Science Research Method. This systemic approach combines information and communication technologies with group facilitation to empower adolescents to: 1) collect and discuss data about factors in their local environments that facilitate or hinder well-being within their school community; 2) identify relevant local stakeholders who could help to address the issues identified; and 3) advocate collectively for local improvements to support increased well-being at a community level. Results: Eleven citizen scientists ages 13 to 17 years from the science club of Institución Educativa Santa Ana were recruited and together conducted 11 walks within the school to collect data about the facilitators and barriers to student well-being. They identified barriers to well-being related to school infrastructure, furniture, bathrooms, and sense of belonging. They then advocated with school stakeholders and reached agreements on concrete actions to address identified barriers, including fostering a culture among students of caring for school property, and presenting their findings to the community action board. This methodology allowed the community to realize how students can become agents of change and take collective action when motivated by practice-focused methodologies such as Our Voice. Project ripple effects, including greater empowerment and participation in collective actions by students, also were observed. Conclusions: This study underscores the importance of the school’s built environment in the well-being of students in rural areas. The Our Voice method provided the opportunity to inform school-based interventions, and promoted ripple effects that expanded productive dialogue to the community level and generated systemic actions involving actors outside of the school community.
Spatial Segregation Patterns and Association with Built Environment Features in Colombian Cities
(RELX Group (Netherlands), 2023) Andrés F. Useche; Olga L. Sarmiento; María José Álvarez‐Rivadulla; Pablo Medina; Diana Higuera-Mendieta; Felipe Montes
The effect of an urban Cable Car on Social Capital: the case of TransMiCable in Bogotá, Colombia
(2024) Olga L. Sarmiento; Andrés F. Useche; María Alejandra Rubio; Diana Higuera-Mendieta; Paula Guevara-Aladino; Eliana Martinez; Luis A. Guzmán; Victor A. Cantillo-Garcia; Joan Benach
<title>Abstract</title> <bold>Background:</bold> Large informal or precarious settlements at cities' peripheries embody the inequalities in Latin America. The measurement and assessment of the social capital could help understand the social implication of transport interventions such as cable cars, intended to better connect peripheral settlements. The aim of this study was to measure changes in social capital (SC) for the purpose of evaluating the social impact of TransMiCable cable car, implemented in 2018 in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. <bold>Methodology:</bold> Urban Transformations and Health: The Case of TransMiCable in Bogotá is a natural experiment in which baseline and follow up household surveys were collected before and after the implementation of TransMiCable. To measure social capital (SC), SC latent classes were identified using latent transition analysis. We used six dimensions of SC that might be affected by an urban intervention: networking (structural and relational), trust (horizontal and vertical), and civic engagement (cooperation and empowerment). The number of classes was determined by optimizing low BIC and high entropy. To assess the effect of TransMiCable, we estimated the class transitions probabilities and compared them between intervention and control between baseline and follow-up. <bold>Results:</bold> We followed 1679 individuals, 825 (49.1%) resided in the intervention area, and 854 (50.9%) resided in the control area. No differences were observed between intervention and control groups regarding the distribution of the classes per each SC construct at baseline. We found three SC latent classes: 1) Predominantly bonding -higher tendency to establish networks and trust in their families. 2) Predominantly bridging -moderate tendency to trust in friends and neighbors 3) Predominantly linking - higher tendency to trust in governmental organizations, establish networks with them and, higher civic engagement to cooperate in infrastructure and transport problems. The odds of transitioning from predominantly bonding class to predominantly bridging class were 3.34 times higher in the intervention group than in the control (95% CI 2.43-4.62). The odds of transitioning from predominantly bridging and predominantly linking to predominantly bonding was 73% and 66% lower respectively in the intervention as compared to the control group (OR:0.27 95% CI:0.19-0.38 and 0.34 95% CI:0.28-0.71]. This suggests that TransMiCable increased the odds of belonging to a class mainly characterized by having a higher tendency to trust in friends and neighbors as compared to the control group. <bold>Discussion:</bold> The results of this study highlight that the TransMiCable urban transformation facilitated interactions among people and relations within communities, contributing to building bridging social capital. The predominance of the transitions to the bridging SC class uncovers the community engagement and participation as a relevant social outcome from the urban transformation.