Bridges to the Future: Economic Empowerment for AIDS-Orphaned Children in Uganda

Bridges to the Future: Economic Empowerment for AIDS-Orphaned Children in Uganda, represents the first study that measures medium-term efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a family economic empowerment intervention for AIDS-orphaned children. The usual care provided to AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa consists mainly of informal counseling as well as limited material support (e.g., specifically school lunches, textbooks for the required subjects, and note-books). Given the challenges facing these children and their caregivers, further supports are needed in order to help them successfully make the transition from primary school to secondary school and into adolescence. In the context of resource-poor countries, interventions that improve families' economic capabilities are likely to be particularly consequential. Both theory and prior research indicate that economic instability (including poverty) constitutes one of the primary risk factors for AIDS-orphaned children's risk-taking behaviors (including sexual risk-taking), poor mental health functioning, and poor educational outcomes. Thus, the lack of economic security constitutes an important risk factor for AIDS-orphaned children. Yet, to-date, few interventions aimed at care and support of AIDS-orphaned children have incorporated components to address family-level poverty/economic instability of the children and their caregiving families. Within this context, there is a need for innovative interventions that promote sustainable (more than short-term) economic and behavior change among AIDS-orphaned children and create the supports necessary to sustain these changes.