Teach 15,000 rural kids to save and invest

The Aflatoun Program encourages children to view themselves as active participants in their community.  There is an emphasis on teamwork.  Children are encouraged to organize simple enterprise that can develop their entrepreneurial skills and add to their savings. 

The pupils in Looc Central School in Plaridel, Misamis Occidental, organized a simple financial enterprise of selling local delicacies in school.  The cooking skills they have learned in their home economic class were put to use as they cook local delicacies like rice cake and sell them to their school mates.  They have sought the help of their parents in cooking these delicacies at home.  Excitement filled the hearts of these pupils when they generated a little income out of the enterprise.  The income earned is secondary.  What matters are the skills developed like planning and budgeting that the children learn while doing the experience.  The small income they earned were added to their savings account. 

School children, along with their teachers and parents, in the three provinces of Luzon in the Philippines were trained about social and financial education in the last quarter of 2010. Three batches of Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education trainings, that generated 150 participants, were conducted in the provinces of Quezon, Batangas, and Laguna, for the months of October, November, and December, respectively. The training made the children appreciate the Aflatoun's core elements of Personal Understanding and Exploration, Rights and Responsibilities, Saving and Spending, Planning and Budgeting, and Social and Financial Enterprise. Children, being at the heart of the program, were given the chance to participate in the training, which was originally intended for the teachers. Their views about money, resources, spending, and budgeting were given value and formed part of the plan for the program's integration in the curriculum. Apart from the schools' role, the program recognizes the value of continuous education that can only be achieved if parents are involved in the program. What the children learn from school should be reinforced in the values and discipline they learn at home. Because of this, parents were invited to participate in the two-day training. Parents were made aware of the program's objectives and learned about their roles in developing a financially-knowledgeable citizens. The parents appreciated the training because they have also gained valuable insights about money and budgeting, which they can use in managing their families' resources. The concept of money, savings, investment, budgeting, and entrepreneurship will be integrated in the regular subject areas, particularly Math, Technology and Livelihood Education, and Character Education.