UC Santa Barbara

In the face of extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa, community mobilization interventions represent an important way in which people can be empowered to improve their life. Successfully conducting community mobilization interventions in rural South African communities requires anticipating and addressing a number of potential barriers in order to maximize the chance of success of the intervention. The aim of this article is to discuss some of these barriers, which were identified through a case study of a youth project conducted in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The potential barriers to the conduct of similar interventions discussed include gaining of access to the community, composition of the project group, issues of inclusion and exclusion, misunderstandings among project partners, language barriers, accuracy and reliability of data, and "ownership" of the project. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.