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
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
Ministry of Community Development and Social Services
Private Bag W252
Community House, Sadzu Road
Lusaka, Zambia
Tel: +260 211 225 327
Fax: +260 211 235342
Email: info@mcdss.gov.zm
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