Collaborating with Faith-Based Institutions In Implementing Children Development Accounts for School-going Orphaned and Vulnerable Children: Lessons from SUUBI-Research Program In Rural Uganda

Purpose

This study examines the effects of a collaborative intervention—between a U.S-based research institution and a local faith-based institution in Uganda. Guided by asset theory (Sherraden, 1990), the intervention encourages families caring for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) to save money in special accounts called Children Development Accounts (CDAs) with an assumption that provided with economic opportunity (e.g., CDAs), children will envision the future with hope, thus staying in school, striving to get good results, and avoiding risk taking behaviors. The intervention presents an example of a nontraditional role for a faith-based organization in an African-country context: advancing scientific knowledge through rigorous research designs and pilot testing theoretically-driven interventions.

Methods

Data comes from a NIMH (R21 MH076475-01) funded study called SUUBI-Uganda. The children in the study (N=286) were selected from 15 primary schools in Masaka Diocese—a faith based institution—located within Rakai District, an area of Uganda that has been hit hardest by AIDS. Children (n=138) from 9 randomly selected schools were assigned to the treatment condition with each child receiving a CDA, and children (n=148) from 6 schools were assigned to the control condition, where each child received the usual care for OVCs in Uganda. The study employed a longitudinal research design with one survey conducted at baseline and another conducted at 12-month post-intervention, to assess the effects of the SUUBI-intervention on several children's educational outcomes.

Results

Using General Linear Model, we estimate the effects of the SUUBI-intervention by comparing the experimental and control groups at baseline and at 12-month post-intervention. The results revealed significant differences between the two study groups in: (1) educational plans: at 12-month follow-up, the number of children in the control group planning to go onto senior secondary schooling had dropped by 13 percentage points (78% to 65%), while the number of children in the treatment group increased by eleven percentage points (77% to 88%); (2) certainty-level on educational plans, specifically, “how certain children were that they would achieve their educational plans”: there was a 21 percentage point jump for the treatment group from baseline to 12-month follow up (58% vs. 79%), while the percentage of children in the control group dropped by eleven percentage points (62% vs. 51%); (3) educational achievement—measured by scores obtained on a standardized national examination called, primary leaving examination (PLE): children in the treatment group obtained a better average score (26.82) compared with children in the control condition (28.97). The PLE scores range from 4 to 36. A lower score represents better academic achievement; (4) school attendance: the treatment group had significantly improved their attendance record between baseline and at 12-month follow-up (57.92 days vs. 60.46). School attendance of children in the control group decreased slightly (62.7 days at baseline vs. 61.85 at 12-month follow-up).

Conclusions.

The results suggest a potential for collaboration between research institutions and faith-based institutions in delivering innovative interventions to address the educational needs of a vulnerable group: OVCs . CDAs might have an effect on the future of children by improving their expectations about future careers.