Microcredit as an Indirect Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children: The Income Generating Activities Financing Model (Rainbow Model of Care)

This paper describes the 'Rainbow Microcredit' scheme in Zambia that aimed to extend support to families that hosted orphans.

The paper describes the Rainbow microcredit model as follows:

• The core cells - the 'Awareness Groups' (AG) of the Income Generating Activities (IGA) groups are the 'children guardians' - the people committed to looking after the 'orphans and vulnerable children' (O.VC);
• The AG are mainly women;
• They meet weekly to discuss and solve OVC problems and supply their needs;
• A 'Rainbow' operator is always present at these meetings.

The paper then lists the following characteristics of the IGA:

• Aim: to assist extended families by providing support for the maintenance of their orphan dependents;
• IGA:
  • Is a business, not a handout;
  • Is a form of social dignity restitution;
  • Contains a training course on micro-business.

Evaluating the impact of the program on the families involved, the paper states that this is done by:

• Drawing a statistical profile of the participants of the program;
• Comparing it to the situation of clients who had completed the program;
• Evaluating the benefits of IGAs to the families involved.

The paper concludes that:

• To enable clients to run businesses of their own, the IGA should aim to give women the confidence that they can manage without external handouts;
• IGA is, therefore, a program for microcredit training, its non-measurable benefits being more remarkable than those shown in statistical evaluations.