In Fort Portal City, community volunteer Rosette Kabarangira is helping families rethink how they prepare for healthcare expenses, encouraging a culture of saving that can make timely medical care more accessible. For Rosette Kabarangira, helping a family prepare for a medical emergency begins with a simple conversation about saving.

In communities where household incomes are often stretched across competing needs, putting money aside for healthcare can seem difficult. Some people believe that saving is only possible for those with well-paying jobs or substantial incomes. Rosette is working to change that perception.

As a community volunteer and savings-for-health ambassador in Fort Portal City's North Division, she works with seven Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), encouraging members to save regularly for healthcare and manage their finances more effectively. Her work is helping community members understand that preparing for future medical expenses does not necessarily require a large income. Rather, it can begin with small, consistent contributions and a commitment to financial planning.

One of the biggest challenges Rosette encounters is the belief that saving for healthcare is beyond the reach of people with limited incomes. Through community mobilisation and awareness sessions, she encourages individuals and households to reconsider this perception and explore how joining a VSLA can help them prepare for healthcare needs.

"Most people used to think that you need a big job or a lot of money to start saving for health. My sessions focus on addressing those misconceptions, and usually, they enrol and start saving afterwards," she explains.

For Rosette, these conversations are an important part of building financial confidence within communities. Rather than simply encouraging people to contribute money, she helps them understand the value of saving, the benefits of belonging to a VSLA and the practical steps involved in becoming a member. Her approach focuses on making financial preparedness understandable and achievable for people with different income levels.

As a trained savings-for-health ambassador, she mentors VSLA members on financial management and the importance of planning for future needs. Her community sessions cover savings management, budgeting, saving for old age, personal financial management and investment.

These topics help members think more broadly about how they use their income and how they can balance immediate household expenses with longer-term financial responsibilities. Through the training and mentorship, Rosette encourages members to develop habits that can strengthen their financial preparedness and improve their ability to respond to unexpected expenses.

She also follows up with the VSLA groups to monitor their progress and encourage members to keep saving for healthcare. This ongoing engagement is important because building a savings culture requires more than a single awareness session. It depends on consistent encouragement, practical guidance and the confidence that regular contributions can make a difference. This is because when people understand why they are saving and how to manage their resources, they are better positioned to make informed decisions about their healthcare needs.

Among the changes that motivate Rosette most is the difference she has observed in how expectant mothers prepare for and access maternity services. Pregnancy comes with healthcare needs that require timely attention, including regular antenatal care visits. Yet the costs associated with seeking these services can place pressure on households that have not prepared financially.

Rosette has seen how this approach is making a difference among the communities she works with. "I see that expectant mothers are now able to happily attend all their maternity services, including all antenatal visits, because they are saving for health," she says.

Witnessing these changes reinforces the importance of her work.  Her experience shows the importance of saving for healthcare. When families set aside money in advance, they can meet medical costs when the need arises without having to scramble for money.  Having money set aside can make it easier for expectant mothers to attend antenatal visits and access other maternity services when they need them.

Rosette is among the Village Health Team (VHT) members trained to serve as savings-for-health ambassadors under the Decent Work and Social Protection project in Uganda, funded by the Kingdom of Belgium. The project promotes saving for health among VSLAs in the Rwenzori and Albertine regions as an approach to addressing delays in seeking healthcare

Through their existing relationships with community members, VHTs are well positioned to mobilise households, explain the benefits of health savings and provide continued mentorship to VSLA groups.

Rosette's work also shows the importance of financial education in social protection. Beyond the amount saved, the knowledge and habits developed through regular mentorship help communities to make better-informed decisions about managing their resources.

She says that the impact of saving for health should not end when the project ends. She wants the communities she works with to continue saving and applying the financial management skills they have acquired.

As Uganda advances discussions around Universal Health Coverage, Rosette believes that encouraging households to maintain their health savings is an important part of strengthening financial preparedness. She continues to motivate VSLA members to remain active, contribute regularly, and recognise health savings as an ongoing household priority.

•