Paper

Increasing Savings and Solidarity among Households with Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Rwanda

Building sustainable livelihoods for child headed households
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This paper presents an overview of the Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) methodology introduced by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Rwanda in partnership with Caritas Rwanda.

Child-headed households (CHH) in Rwanda face challenges of lack of shelter, food, money, household furnishings, land, farming equipment, firewood and school materials. SILC aimed to help orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) households access reliable and safe financial services and basic financial education. The project aimed to understand how savings and internal lending activities can contribute to the economic security of OVC.

At the end of 12 months, the project had served 10,768 households, approximately 6,000 of which were OVC caregivers or CHH. There were improvements in access to credit, ability to pay for health insurance, nutrition and amounts saved for education. There was a decrease in the number of school dropouts. SILC helped to:

  • Improve groups' ability to manage their own resources;
  • Improve social cohesion;
  • Reduce stigma associated with HIV;
  • Move program graduates to vocational training;
  • Encourage self-replication of groups.

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