Current development communication strongly recommends an approach based on the initiatives of communities through community-based organizations. Unfortunately government policies are unaware to the research trends and government agencies tend to dictate to rural communities what projects are to be initiated and how they are carried out. This paper has analysed three case studies of projects in Tanzania started and carried out with the initiatives of the people in community organizations and shows the effectiveness of this approach. The study also shows the contribution that independent educational radio to these initiatives of the rural communities