COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION

OBJECTIVES
• By the end of session participants will be able to:-
• Define a community
• Define community mobilization
• State the role and importance of community
mobilization
• List steps involved in community mobilization
• Identify the target groups community mobilization
• Discuss the factors that influence acceptance of health
services
• Explain the strategies that we can use to mobilize the
community
• Discuss the effects of community mobilization
• Explain common barriers to community mobilization.
 DEFINITION OF A COMMUNITY
• A community is a group of people who
• Live in the same village, town, city
• Have same characteristics, cultural
background and language
• Have same interest and goals, beliefs and
values
• Stay in the same geographical area
• Trust and respect each other
• Share the same facilities, e.g. schools,
churches, health facilities and social amenities
 ROLES THE COMMUNITY CAN PLAY

• The community has an important role to

identify and use available resources in the
village and to plan and act accordingly, in a
county where there is a mechanism of local
self-government, important decisions are
usually made at the local level by the local
people themselves.
 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION

• Community mobilization is a process of

involving and motivating people, health
workers and policy makers to organize and
take action for a common purpose in order to
achieve sustainable development.
 AIMS
• It correctly and adequately and persuasively informs
the vast majority of a community to come forward to
demand and use certain health services.
• It stimulates families to make intelligent, informed and
free choices of demanding and using health services
e.g. in immunization,
• raising immunization coverage for the target groups,
• reduce vaccine preventable diseases of childhood,
• reduce drop-out rates,
• To enable programme managers to mobilize resources
in order that the services meet and satisfy the demand
created e.g. reduce drop-out rates
• Community mobilization to promote and
sustain health implies not only a planned
approach to influencing individual behavior
change but also to influence social change
• When community mobilization is successful,
individuals of communities become self-
reliant and behavior and social or structural
changes are more likely to be sustained.
• The process facilitates change from one
condition to another; support, clarifies,
addresses the community needs and
aspirations.
• The people are involved and participate actively
• The people are involved and participate actively
in articulating and responding to their own
problems with support of some experts or
facilitators.
• Community mobilization is an integral part of the
health system and is vital for success of a
programme.
• Health workers must have a clear understanding
of the influence of the communities on the
provision of health care services.
• Appropriate community mobilization is a
community’s right to self-determination and
recognizes their indigenous resources.
• The process facilitates members of the community
solve their own problems. In this way, their culture, live
hood and religion are respected and acts as a positive
resources rather than a barrier to the required.
• Where there is community mobilization there is no
room for imposing external solutions that may not be
in harmony with the community patterns of beliefs or
organization.
• The community that is properly mobilized should not
feel coerced or forced into making certain decisions.
• They should be part and parcel of all the decisions
made and actively involved in every step made.
• In mobilizing communities, experts are open to
learning and listening to community ideas and
interpretations of information utilizing a language of
communication that is understood and accepted.
 WHY COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION IS
NECESSARY

• Prevention and control of diseases requires the

co-operation and participation of the community.
• In order to make the community aware of the
benefits of disease prevention and control and
the role they can play.
• Community mobilization helps to decrease or
reduce mobility from diseases in the community.
• Members of the community may have ideas or
resources to improve disease prevention and
control.
• Proper management of resources is the best
possible way for the development of the
community, we call this community mobilization
where people plan and do things, they take
charge, transforming their community and their
lives.
• Community mobilization allows people in the
community to;
• Identify needs and promote community interests,
• Promote good leadership and democratic
decision making,
• Identify specific groups for undertaking specific
problems.
KEY STEPS IN COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
• Create awareness of the health issues
• Motivate the community through community
preparation, organizational development,
capacity developments and bringing allies
together.
• Share information and communication
• Support them, provide incentives and
generate resources.
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTING
INFORMATION
• Direct observation
• Group interviews
• Sketching maps
• Roles-plays
• Stories
• Proverbs
• Workshops
 STEPS INVOLVED IN MOBILIZING THE COMMUNITY FOR DISEASE
PREVENTION AND CONTROL
• Building partnership between you and the community .This
you will do by spending time listening to the community.
Learn as much as possible from the community-learn their
values, habits, traditions, attitudes towards disease
prevention and control
• Approach the community, through existing local leaders
and administration, village health communities or similar
groups. Such, groups are composed of persons representing
various parts of the community.
• Obtain information to help adopt the disease prevention
and control methods to the people you work with.
• Ask elders or VHC members to name some
people in the community who would assist you to
collect any information, you require to facilitate
your work of mobilizing the community for
disease prevention and control. You may follow
the following steps
• Approach the community
• Learn about the community
• Identify the target groups for disease prevention
and control
• Determine the cause for non-prevention and
control
 WHY WE MOBILIZE

• Create awareness of an issue, help plan the

strength of a community
• Steps
• Define the problem
• Establish a community mobilization group
• Re-design strategies for a certain objectives
• Selection of target group
• Active plan – time frame
• Capacity building
• Identify partners
 MOBILIZATION AT VARIOUS LEVELS
• Mobilization is initiated and can occur at various levels so
long as both the interest in and values of the particular
issue in this case disease prevention and control is high
• Political mobilization
• Government
• Co-operate
• Community
• Beneficiary (Families)
• Identify the target group for e.g. HIV/AIDS disease
prevention and control
• All persons who are sexually active
• Those who require special attention e.g. youth in and out of
school
• Women of child bearing age (15-49) years
• HIV/AIDS infected men and women couples
• ADVANTAGES OF COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
• Helps local ownership and the sustainability of
the health programmes.
• Helps to motivates people in a community and
encourages participation and involvement of
everyone.
• Helps build, community capacity to identify and
address community needs.
• Promotes, sustainability and long-term
commitment to a community change movement.
• It motivate a community to advocate for policy
changes and respond better to health needs
 EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
• As a means to influence individual/couples behavior;
- decrease morbidity/mortality,
- increase in health seeking behavior or health status
• As a process to influence community/social change;
- increase in individual self-reliance,
- increase in community self-reliance.
• Both purposes can influence
- Social norms
- Availability and access to services
- Human resource development
- Sustainability of local, regional and national commitment
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ACCEPTANCE OF
HEALTH SERVICES
• These vary from community to
community, however in general they
include; knowledge, beliefs and values
• Other factors
• Influence by other people
• Availability and accessibility of health
services
• KNOWLEDGE
• Comes from either experiences or through
information provided by teachers, parents,
friends, books, mass media etc.
• BELIEFS, TABOOS AND PRACTICES
• These are usually derived from parents,
grandparents and other people we respect.
Each community has its own beliefs and
customs.
• ATTITUDES
• Attitudes reflect likes and dislikes. They come
from experiences or from people who are
close to us. They attract us to things or makes
us wary of them
 VALUES
• Values are the beliefs and standards that are
most important to a people. People in a
community share many values e.g. they may
want their community‘s population to growth,
thus they may encourage those who have lost
their husbands to be inherited. The
community may value their economic
prosperity. If you understand their values you
can tailor your services to match the values of
the community e.g. you can emphasis the
economic benefits of having a VCT done. This
way community members will be motivated to
participate.
INFLUENCE FROM OTHER PEOPLE
• People who are important to us can make us
behave and act the way we do. e.g. Parents,
• Grand-parents, village leaders, religious
leaders, close friends, workmates, people with
a lot of experience and special skills and
people who try to help ,when need help. Such
people should be convinced to help mobilize
the community for disease prevention.
AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF HEALTH
SERVICES
• Determine why the community is not
participating in the prevention and control.
Are the services available? And if available
how far away.
STRATEGIES WE CAN USE TO MOBILIZE THE
COMMUNITIES
• Advocacy
• IEC
• Social marketing
 ADVOCACY
• Advocacy in diseases prevention and control is a
way of convincing individuals or groups to take
their share of responsibility in promoting thealth
services.
• It can be carried out in stages
• Hold seminars for opinion leaders and influential
people to plan with them how responsibility for
disease prevention and control will be shared in
the community.
• Win the support the of fellow H/WS, make them
understand the benefits of the services to the
community.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE COMMUNICATION
• Information, education and communication
are very important in community mobilization.
For the basic information and message about
prevention and control of disease to reach the
people at the grass root, many strategies must
be used e.g. use of;
Mass media
• Radio promotions
• TV promotion
• Articles in local magazines
• Billboards and posters
• Pamphlets
Advantages
• Reaches large number of people quickly
• Portrays credible/believable role models
• Puts pressure on decision makers
• General interest in the issue
Interpersonal communication
• Enables participation by the client
• Is an informal choice
• Empowers clients as decision makers
• Generate value of issues
• Community Mobilization Fora
• Every level of health services delivery where the health
provider comes into contact with potential or actual clients.
• VHC and other community meetings
- Women group meetings
- At home during home visits
• The following shall participate activity in providing and
disseminating simple and relevant information and
education in disease prevention and control.
- All trained Health Workers
- community health workers.
METHODS USED TO DISSEMINATE
INFORMATION
• Talks
• Mass media
• Folk media
TALKS
• Things to consider
• Find out target group
• Identify needs of the group
• Select priority messages related to the
problem
• Set objectives
• Outline content
• Design and (prepare visual aids)
• Identify resources
SOCIAL MARKETING
• Involves 4P’s
• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
• Decrease in disease prevalence
• Increase in acceptance of services
• Increases individual self- esteem
• Increase community self- reliance.
BARRIERS TO COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION:
• Rivalries and power struggles
• Hidden agenda
• Lack of time
• Lack of material and human resources
KEY MESSAGES E.G. FOR VCT PROMOTION
• Living positively with HIV/AIDS
• The pro and cons of testing
• VCT confidentiality
• Reducing stigma of HIV/AIDS
• Myths about HIV
• Information and Myths about testing
• Information and myths about condoms
• Develop simple but good messages.