Savings and Economic Empowerment Program Underway for Orphaned Youth in Uganda

Fred Ssewamala, Associate Professor at Columbia University, YouthSave member, and Global Assets Project Senior Fellow, has received a $3.34M grant for a family-based economic empowerment program for AIDS-orphaned and vulnerable youth (11-14) called, Bridges to the Future. Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), Bridges to the Future will work with 1,440 Ugandan youth to promote savings for secondary education, microenterprise development, and mentoring and educational support.

Fred has committed several years working with orphaned and vulnerable children and youth, especially in Uganda which has an estimated 1.2 million orphans, of whom 45% are because of AIDS. For example, his project, SUUBI–Maka (Hope for Families), which commenced in 2008, aims to provide and examine economic opportunities created from child development accounts for families in Uganda caring for AIDS-orphaned children. Aside from his extensive work in Uganda, last year, Fred, along with New America Foundation’s Jamie Zimmerman, designed a youth savings policy pilot for the Bayelsa State Government in Nigeria, CDA STARS. Launched in November 2011, the pilot provides low-income, secondary school youth with seeded and matched savings accounts conditioned on their school attendance.

We would like to congratulate Fred on his exciting work and research contributions to the youth savings field! To read more about Bridges to the Future, click here.