Teach 15,000 rural kids to save and invest

Here in the Philippines, with or without the resources to spend, celebrations have always been fun. And as we join the global world of Aflatoun, our partner schools have prepared some exciting activities for our dear student savers in celebration for the Global Money Week and Aflatoun International Day last March 14-20 with the theme: Take Part, Save Smart!

The city of Tagum, also known as the City of Festivals, stayed true to their nickname and had a joyous Aflatoun International Day celebration for their youth savers! With an Inter-School Variety Show Competition, Aflatoun Kit and Balloon Making Contest and other activities organized by the Tagum Cooperative with the help of the schools and teachers, almost a hundred active and talented participants were able to join the Global Celebration and showcase their talents and creativity. Ofcourse, the Aflatoun Mascot was also present in the event, always ready to celebrate!

And to give you a brief background, Cebu is known as one of the most developed provinces in the Philippines and in the town of Pinamungajan, the global Aflatoun event was celebrated through a series of activities such as Poster Making Contest and Quiz Bowl. The Lamac MPC Youth Planet Laboratory Cooperative also organized an Aflateen Camp and conducted a Basic Coop Course, Financial Literacy and Gender Sensitivity Training participated by the Youth Savers from their partner schools just in time for the celebration. 

Nobody can argue that in this modern age, Internet has an undeniably great control in reaching out and connecting people. As a matter of fact, in one of the activities laid out for the global celebration, the Internet acted as the connecting bridge. The Global Connect is an activity where savers from one place can communicate with other savers from a different part of the world thru video-call software.

For the first time ever, savers from Saint Bernard Central School in Southern Leyte had an amazing experience of talking with savers from the country of Timor Leste or East Timor. And in the Most Loyal and Noble City, Iloilo City, the savers from the SPED-Integrated School for Exceptional Children even rented a space in a nearby coffeeshop to get a better signal for the Global Connect. They have been able to talk to other student savers about the program and its positive outcome. Meanwhile, the savers from Tagum City also experienced the Global Connect and have been able to communicate with several countries like Amsterdam, Pakistan and Sri Lanka wherein they exchanged ideas and befriended foreign Youth savers.

This year’s celebration has been both entertaining and enriching. And like the previous years, we always make sure that the savers have fun and, at the same time, recognize the importance of saving. With our partner schools' help, we educate our youth that to have a fun-filled celebration, you don't have to spend too much but just spend wisely and work together! We're already looking forward for the next year's celebration, how about you?

Till next update, keep saving!

Hello everyone! How well have you been? Hope you were doing fine just like us in the Children and Youth Team in the NATCCO Network. It really is true, that when you are doing something you enjoy, time goes by so fast! A year has passed, and a lot of great things have happened! All of which, I am going to share with you right now. Are you ready?

Just a year ago, we are proudly telling you that we were able to teach 150,000+ children the essence and importance of saving through 607 schools coming from different parts of our beautiful country, the Philippines. We, alongside with the 4,622 trained teachers and partner Cooperatives have been able to share our knowledge to the younger generation.

Looking back, we were already happy to be part of educating our children and youth but we, as ambitious as others might say, wanted to reach out to more schools and children. We want to teach 15,000 Filipino children what they are capable of, to know their worth, and develop their cooperativism and full potential through saving and investing. After all, our National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal once said, ‘The youth is the hope of our future’.

And as of December 2015, we have successfully conducted 21 Teachers’ Training with a total of 5,020 trained teachers. Through the Aflatoun program, we are now educating 187,876 children from 724 schools. To some of you who still have questions about the Aflatoun Program, it is a movement that aims to socially and financially educate the Children and Youth by encouraging schools to make activities that will inspire their students to save and invest.

With the aim to empower the children and Youth in our mind, we are now planning several activities for the year 2016. We will be having the annual National Youth Congress on April 13-15. The congress will be bringing in Youth leaders from different region to develop their sense of belongingness and camaraderie. As well as, give them a chance to share their accomplishments and plan the future with their fellow leaders.

In unity with other savers around the world, we’ll also be celebrating the Global Money Week from March 14-20 with the International Aflatoun Day happening on March 17. The schools and teachers are encouraged to organize activities for their students. In the past, our partner schools have planned a Youth Talk activity where savers from their school converse with foreign students through Skype. The theme of this year’s Global Money Week and Aflatoun Day is ‘Take Part, Save Smart!’

Those are just the main events we have for this year and we do have other activities lined up, such as a number of teachers’ training and school launchings. Optimistically, at the end of this year, the number of the children we’ve reached will increase. What I can tell you now, is that we can educate 15,000 rural kids to save and invest as long as we are moving forward with the same goal TOGETHER!

We can’t wait to share this another year with all of you. Till next update!