Self-Help Project as a Tool for Community Development

This study examined the execution of self-help projects as effective tool for community development. The study focused on a Health Centre built by communal effort at Igboja in Ondo State ofNigeria. 110 respondents were selected, comprising ofthe Initiators, Legitimizers, Project leaders and ordinary community members. A combination of Positional, Social participation and Reputational approaches were used to identify the various categories of leaders while stratified systematic sampling was used to select the ordinary community members. Majority (74%) ofthe respondents could be categorized as youths, not being older than 50 years. About 77.5% were literate while only 32.5% were engaged in farming as their primary occupation. Some ofthe project initiators were also identified as the project legitimizers while all the initiators were identified as some of the project leaders. Meetings, campaigns and launchings were the means by which people were made aware of the project. Methods of resources mobilization were mostly voluntary donations, launchings, levies, and loans. Level of participation varied with 28% being ‘high’, 46% and 15% being ‘medium’ and ‘high’ respectively. Chi square test revealed that educational level was significantly related to project leadership awhile t-test results showed no significant difference between expectations of community members and benefits derived from the project

Business · Community development · Community health · Community project · Medical education · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Stratified sampling · Systematic sampling · Community Development and Social Impact · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology