The Bracelet Campaign
Invisible Children started its first economic initiative—the Bracelet Campaign—to help Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) generate income in a nearly unemployable environment. The Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) program was born as bracelet makers began to transition from IDP camps back to original homesteads.
BRACELET CAMPAIGN: THE BEGINNING
While living in IDP camps, there were few opportunities for residents to earn an income.
The Invisible Children Bracelet Campaign (ICBC) aimed to provide employment opportunities to vulnerable displacement camp residents by giving them the chance to earn a good income by making culturally unique bracelets. Selling the bracelets in the US, IC has been able to raise funds for its Legacy Scholarship Program and empower adults living in the camps.
All bracelet makers completed an ICU-led curriculum called the Savings and Investment Training Initiative (SITI). The SITI course taught beneficiaries about the benefits of creating regular budgets, savings plans, and ways to invest their savings into sustainable income-generating activities and small businesses.
Armed with personal savings and new skills, and bolstered by an improved security situation in northern Uganda, bracelet makers returned home throughout 2008 to 2010. Invisible Children Uganda wanted to develop a way for bracelet makers to both continue saving money and start supporting their communities after returning home. The organization recruited bracelet makers to help start its VSLA initiative as they returned home.
Village Savings and Loan Associations
VSLA provides members with three immensely valuable benefits: a way to save money, a way to earn interest, and a way to access previously unavailable capital to start small businesses.
VSLA is comprised of 50 savings groups consisting of 20 members each. Internally managed and led by former bracelet makers, VSLA groups spread valuable financial knowledge to members of their community. Group members meet once a week to save and loan money. With structured support and financial instruction from VSLA staff, villagers who have never saved money before are being empowered through learning life-changing personal finance practices. Invisible Children has recognized the need for building the practical skills of participants beyond financial training. With illiteracy rates in northern Uganda at 57%, IC provides literacy trainers to 400 beneficiaries, equipping them with a crucial skill which will benefit their businesses, their communities and their families. The program now supports over 1,000 people in rural areas of northern Uganda.
Because of the success of the first savings cycles, non-group members in surrounding communities are reaching out to IC to inquire about opportunities for program inclusion. This organic, need-driven growth is exactly the type of program development Invisible Children seeks to replicate.
VSLA is not a resource-heavy program—groups need only training, pens, notebooks, a calculator, and a metal lockbox to form and operate—and it revolves around skill acquisition and group-generated capital. Once a group has learned VSLA methodology, Invisible Children gives the group more autonomy. After a few savings cycles, groups are experienced enough to teach their peers about the VSLA model, making viral growth possible and leading to the sustained success of the program.
