Scheme initiates teenage school girls to savings accounts

FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT FOR GIRLS

Over 1,000 Senior One female students from 42 secondary schools in Masaka region have been selected to benefit from the 'Suubi For Her' scheme, a financial inclusion initiative where learners are facilitated to open up savings accounts in banks.

It is a savings-led economic empowerment scheme, which uses the Youth Savings Accounts and family-strengthening groups to empower teenage girls between 14 and 17 ages to have access to sources of money saved on individual accounts.  

The project (study) which is scheduled to last four years, has provided the initial deposit of sh20,000 for each of the learners from selected secondary schools in the region to open up savings accounts with Centenary and Stanbic banks.

The accounts opening exercise will be conducted on Monday, July 30 at Blessed Sacrament Kimaanya in Masaka Municipality where beneficiaries will be accompanied by their parents, teachers and head teachers to witness and endorse their accounts. 

The exercise will be graced by the state minister for youth and children affairs, Nakiwala Kiyingi and the bishop of Masaka diocese, the Right Rev. John Baptist Kaggwa.

The diocese has worked in close partnership with the International Centre for Child Health and Development (ICHAD). 

Under the arrangement, the beneficiaries will be required to make savings on a monthly basis or when they get the money, which amount will be matched by the scheme on a 1:1 basis not exceeding $10. This implies that if a beneficiary deposits a maximum of sh36,000 on her bank account, the project will add her the same amount and this will go on for four years. The project was launched last year in Masaka town. 

Prof. Fred Ssewamala, a PHD Lecturer at Washington University in the United States, who is the director of ICHAD said that ‘Suubi For Her' evaluates the long-term impact and cost of a combination intervention comprised of Youth Savings Accounts and family-strengthening groups for adolescents in 42 secondary schools, aimed at reducing HIV risks and other associated challenges among adolescent girls as well as promote educational attainment. 

On the same day, the 3rd Annual International Conference on Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa will be opened at Hotel Brovad in Masaka, for the first time in a rural setting.

The three-day annual Conference, which will be attended by Dr. Mary Mackay, Dean and Professor Brown School of Social Work, Washington University will open on July 30. 

It has drawn participants from over eight countries including USA, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and others.

 Prof. Ssewamala said the conference will convene policy makers, researchers, practitioners, NGOs, and local stakeholders committed to addressing the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

"This time I decided to organise the conference in Masaka because I wanted to take it closer to our end-users," he explained.

At least 40 students, 20 from Higher School Certificate (‘A') level and 20 from nine Universities and one tertiary institution have been facilitated each with shs150,000 transport allowance to enable them attend the conference with a purpose of interesting them into doing research about child health. 

The minister of state for higher education, Dr. JC Muyingo is scheduled to represent the First Lady and minister for education, Janet Museveni, who officiated at the first annual conference at Kampala Sheraton Hotel in July 2016.