Dr. Ssewamala shaking hands with a youth participant who just opened an account at the launch event.

By Vilma Ilic, Columbia University

On September 29th, over 1,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in Uganda opened Child Development Accounts as a part of the Bridges to the Future research project. For the vast majority, this was their first time interacting with a bank. With initial deposits ranging from $10 to $20, the project seeks to develop a savings culture in the children at a young age and increase income generation over time – all in the name of education

Bridges to the Future is a five-year longitudinal study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The study aims to promote monetary savings for secondary education, promote microenterprise development to generate family income, and provide mentoring and educational support programs to protect children from future risks.

The Child Development Accounts are housed at three financial institutions: Kakuuto Microfinance, Diamond Trust Bank, and Centenary Rural Development Bank, yet at the account opening launch event on September 29^th, the private sector was tasked with a very clear goal. It needed to create asset-building products, especially for poor, rural children and their families.

This particular study, designed specifically for orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa, is the result of nearly a decade’s worth of rigorous research conducted by Dr. Fred Ssewamala, former Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation’s Global Assets Project and Associate Professor of Social Work and International Affairs at Columbia University. His other innovative research projects that seek to identify effective asset-building strategies among vulnerable populations include SEED, Suubi-Uganda, and Suubi-Maka, among others.

With past participants of these successful programs speaking to the new cohort of children, the day was rife with optimism for the future. The individuals’ testimonies described the hardships they endured as orphans—struggling for daily survival, then the psychological transformation they underwent after Suubi equipped them with asset building tools, mentorship, and income-generating skills—all of which they carried into young adulthood, into professional careers, and onto university. The former participants implored the new class to take advantage of income-generating skills learned in the Bridges’ microenterprise training courses and to save money in their accounts each month, while they also stressed the importance of staying in school and focusing on their life goals. It is exactly through asset ownership that an individual has the choice to focus on her/his long-term dreams and goals rather than struggle for day-to-day survival.

Dr. Ssewamala’s speech inaugurated the account opening, and during his speech, he lauded several key players who are integral in helping these children to become successful members of society like many of the alumni of his past projects: the family, civil society, the private sector, and the state – including the education system.

By working with public schools, the Bridges project helps to supplement their children’s education, aiming to keep them in school before they leave due to a lack of resources. With extended kinship care being the norm in Uganda, especially for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, the Bridges project provides families with the necessary tools to support their children. Partnering with Catholic Diocese of Masaka and a youth-serving organization, Reach the Youth-Uganda, Bridges applies the need and importance of connecting actors in civil society for the greater good. And finally, Dr. Ssewamala, and the Dean of Columbia University School of Social Work, Dr. Jeanette Takamura, pressed the Members of Parliament who also spoke at the event, to legislate policy to create asset-building tools at formal financial institutions for every child in Uganda.

While the opening of accounts are a reflection of the long-lasting partnerships thathave been built across many sectors of society, more cooperation is needed in order help build assets for these children. Yet by introducing a savings culture and providing the means to plan ahead for one’s future, the Bridges to the Future project provides a significant first step. 

11/02/2012

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