Invisible Children is a groundbreaking organization that I have had the pleasure of working with and writing about before. One of the things I love the most about this organization is their innovative approach to providing relief for the displaced people in war-torn northern Uganda. In this article I will describe how their microeconomic programs work, and why other organizations should use these programs as a model for their own relief efforts.

IC's two main microeconomic programs are the Bracelet Campaign and the MEND Program (they are also developing a new Organic Cotton Initiative). Initial funding for these programs came from their generous donors and dedicated student fundraising leaders. This funding allowed them to establish the program framework in Uganda and to identify and train the program beneficiaries - they like to focus on especially vulnerable persons, such as widows, formerly abducted children, child mothers, disabled people, and people living with HIV/AIDS, but they also need to screen people to make sure they will be a good fit and dedicated to the program. Once accepted, participants are trained to make either IC's modernized version of traditional Ugandan bracelets or stylish handbags and messenger bags. These items are then personalized: each bracelet is packaged with one of five DVDs containing the story of a child impacted by the war in different ways (night commuter, child mother, AIDS orphan, displacement, and HIV victim), and each handbag carries the name of the person who made it and comes with information about that person's life. These bracelets and bags are then sold around the world, connecting people to this conflict on a very personal level.

Funds from the sale of these products are used in a number of ways. First and foremost, the program participants are paid generous wages for their work in order to support their extreme circumstances. Additional funds are also used to cover program operating costs and to help IC's mission of improving education and putting more children into schools in northern Uganda. But perhaps the most important part of the program is the Savings and Investment Training Initiative. "As part of all of those programs is the savings and loans committee that helps educate people making a wage on our microeconomic programs in terms of the best methods for putting away some of that money initially to opening their own businesses with the money they've been able to put away," says Chris Sarette, vice president of business operations for Invisible Children. The program teaches skills such as budgeting, creating savings plans, responsibly taking loans, and starting and running small businesses. And it works: graduates from the microeconomic program have gone on to open businesses in pig rearing, cattle reselling, and even selling tickets to watch movies and football matches on DirecTV. When people graduate from the program, it creates openings for other especially vulnerable people to make regular wages and improve their lives. This is a development plan that breaks the aid dependency cycle by teaching people to support themselves, and other organizations should strive to achieve similar results wherever they may be working.