Community Self-help Initiatives is one of the programmes being implemented by the Department of Community Development to improve the lives of the people in communities throughout the country. It involves people organizing themselves to solve common problems. It involves community members mobilizing themselves to identify and prioritise their needs and communally plan for satisfying those identified needs. Implement projects that benefit all community members concerned by the project.

Aim

The aim of self-help is to develop stable, progressive and self-reliant communities capable of organizing themselves for self-help action, under their own leadership, using their own initiatives and in most cases using local resources.

Objective

The main objective of Community Self-Help Programme is to promote and facilitate effective implementation of Livelihood and Empowerment services through delivery of community initiated projects for the benefit of the people and by the people themselves.

Types of projects

The type of projects includes but not limited to construction and rehabilitation of small community infrastructure e.g. community halls, markets, libraries and recreational centres, group housing schemes, sub-center houses, construction of

community footbridges, culverts and linking small roads, dip tanks, animal shelters, poultry houses, fish ponds, bee keeping, gardening , water and sanitation projects e.g. construction of pit latrines, hand wells and projects that take care of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The programmes in two fold

1. There is the social improvement type of projects where communities work on communal projects such as footbridges, community halls, grain storage sheds, and markets and so on.
2. Economic and livelihood improvement involves project of economic value that are aimed at income generation such as construction of lodges, poultry business, bee keeping and others. This involves generating income for revolving loans.

Targeting and selection criteria

Community Self- Help programme is community and demand driven. The community members initiate the project after sensitizations and awareness meetings at Community level by the Community Development Assistant. The community

contributes 25% of the total cost of the project while 75 % comes from the government. The community fills in an application form which is either approved, rejected or put on hold depending on the viability of the project and the availability