Trust Girls

Funder: UNCDF

Country: Uganda

Programme Dates: 2017 – 2018

Trust Girls is an online community that offers an integrated approach to financial education and sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) education, to enable adolescent girls in Ugandan to achieve greater economic empowerment.

While young women are much more likely to save than other population groups in Uganda, they often face social and cultural barriers to doing so. The overall goal of this project is that young women become financially independent and make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health which, in turn, can lead to greater economic empowerment and gender equality. While young women in Uganda have a desire to save, they often lack the tools and financial know-how, due to lack of awareness of financial products available, high transaction fees and restrictive mobile access.

We developed the mobile-friendly Trust Girls platform to increase young women’s understanding of SRHR and how taking control of their sexual and reproductive health can lead to greater economic empowerment. The platform includes an e-learning course as well as a custom-built goal-setting tool and savings simulator where the young women can track their savings.

So far, the programme has connected over 2,000 Ugandan adolescent girls with their peers, amplifying their voices, and creating digital safe spaces to discuss both sexual health and how to manage finances:

• +2,000 registered girls.
• Of which +750 are under 18.
• +$ 1.4k total savings recorded to date, indicating a safe space to record & track their savings.
• 280 girls started the “Get Smart” course.
• +150 girls completed the “Get Smart” course and were awarded certificates.

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