Community Participation

Project success and sustainability are a function of community participation. As others have shown throughout Bolivia, community participation is more cost‑effective than purely vertically structured programs (Bryan et al. 1994). Housing projects are more readily integrated into other programs if there is community participation. Community participation is active rather than passive involvement; it occurs when people make their own decisions and carry them out. Community participation refers to community members making decisions about, accepting, and complying with certain behavioral changes necessary in regard to combatting Chagas’ disease. These include plastering cracks in the walls, keeping animals outside, and storing objects in containers to keep vinchucas from infesting the house.

Problems relating to community participation included the absence of skilled local labor for some tasks. There was some limited cooperation among households because of their distance from each other. Many peasants refused to cooperate because they didn’t own title to land and homes. Certain adults refused to work with other adults. Poor sanitary conditions persisted in many areas. Peasants also had other tasks they considered more necessary things to do, such as plant and harvest crops. These problems in part indicated a lack of understanding of sociocultural issues and limited skills in cross‑cultural communication from project workers.