The Context

Street and working children in South Asia, live hand to mouth making a living where they can by rag picking, shoe shining, street vending, as domestic help, or casual work. Their livelihood is precarious, competitive and prone to interference from police and other authorities. They are vulnerable, and have little or no support. They live their lives from day to day. These children may have “dreams”, but there is no encouragement or support to help them plan for their future. To escape their bleak reality many street and working children spend what little money they have earned on short-term and often dangerous gratification,such as drugs.

The Project

After Butterflies’ success in Delhi piloting a child-run savings and credit scheme for street and working children, Butterflies and ChildHope are now spreading the scheme across South Asia. They are successfully collaborating with other organisations in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Nepal to develop a network of these savings and credit scheme called the Children Development Bank (CDB). The project’s objective is to harness children’s skills and capabilities and to utilise them to gain more control over their own future. To date 6,406 street and working children in the region are being encouraged to save money in the bank which is “owned” and operated by its clients (under the guidance of an adult facilitator). CDB enables its members to earn interest on their deposits and to promote sustainable livelihood, its adolescent members can access advances for initiating small businesses or cooperatives. As the life of street and working children is very precarious, the children operating the bank are very careful who they lend money to, and they make sure the client will be committed and responsible.

The Children’s Development Banks are:

• Encouraging children to save;
• Developing and supporting sustainable livelihoods;
• Building life skills such as team working, taking responsibility, self-confidence, communication skills, and project management skills. The children who run the bank have to make very difficult decisions about who they will lend money to and have to take into account possibilities of clients not re-paying the loan, or moving locations, or having to drop-out of the scheme, which could be detrimental to the bank as a whole. Therefore children are acting very responsibly and requiring detailed information about small business proposals and ensuring that as a cooperative they all work together to ensure the scheme’s success;
• Building Entrepreneurial skills by channeling children’s entrepreneurial skills and directing these into income generation and employment;
• Providing support and ensuring sustainability through strategies such as mentoring, whereby already successful entrepreneurs are encouraged to practically support children with their own entrepreneurial aspirations.

Challenges and lessons learnt:

• The project has realised that a holistic approach towards the needs of street and working children is needed and as such the CDB forms part of the wider education programme focusing on building the life skills of children.
• It is important that all children should be given equal opportunities to participate, therefore CDB managers are nominated on a rotational basis.
• Cooperatives are recognized as a better opportunity towards a sustainable future, with immense potential for growth. Therefore encouraging group cooperatives is key, where peer pressure exists to succeed and girls and boys are motivated to move along with the group and continue to put in their efforts to make the enterprise successful.
• In order to successfully implement the CDB in other countries it has to be sensitive to the context, whether that be cultural or geographical, and be tailored accordingly.
• Child participation is paramount but it needs to be practiced safely and fairly, especially taking into account the different age groups and gender. The role of adults is extremely important in working out how to implement it in the diverse contexts of the CDB.
• Where children do have families it is important to involve them in the children’s activities to promote commitment and sustainability.

A recent report on the Children's Development Bank and the impact made on children's lives.