ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and analyzes the responses of Peruvian communities to their health needs, and to the inadequacies of the public health sector in dealing with their health problems. In the health care area, for example, numerous projects have incorporated the idea that communities can and should contribute manpower in the form of part-time, unpaid community health workers. Thus in Peru, alongside the spontaneous development of self-help organizations from within communities, the government has sporadically attempted to encourage the development of similar but more formal community-based organizations, with varying degrees of success. The chapter discusses two HSA-Peru sponsored field studies of communities participating in health projects. Community participation through mobilization begins outside the community; the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health projects are the responsibility of the formal health sector, represented by Ministry of Health or private voluntary organization personnel. The chapter provides a short summary and comments on the implications of the findings suggested by the case studies.
