A billion people around the world live with disabilities, and 80% of them live in developing
countries. Persons with disabilities are overrepresented among those who live in absolute
poverty and they generally have poorer health, lower education and fewer economic
opportunities than those without disabilities. This thesis examines how Village Savings and
Loan Associations (VSLA) affect persons with disabilities (PWD) in rural Uganda. The
project we examine, We Can Manage, was initiated by the Norwegian Association of
Disabled (NAD) and National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU). Focus is to
explore the project's effect on social empowerment and entrepreneurial traits in participants.
A randomized controlled trial with survey and in-field lab experiment was conducted to
examine how confidence, trust, happiness, locus of control, willingness to compete and
willingness to take risk was impacted. We found that implementation of the VSLA increase
PWDs willingness to compete, confidence in other villagers as well as locus of control. We
also found an increase in locus of control for males. Our findings indicate that implementation
of projects with VSLAs, such as We Can Manage, can have an empowering effect on its
participants.