Wati is an Aflatoun student from Uganda and he tells us “Saving, because this money we save helps us a lot, like some time, I had saved my money and I had no books, and we were beginning the term... that was primary six second term... as the term was beginning I came without books, but on the first day they came to collect our money... they told me if you want to withdraw you can withdraw, I withdrew some and I went and bought books, so it [accumulated savings] helped me in buying books.”

Training Across the Network

Asia -The Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), ACCU invited Aflatoun to facilitate the Youth Workshop in their Annual Asian Credit Union Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. ACCU wishes to complement their existing savings products to children and youth with Child Social and Financial Education. Eighteen delegates representing credit unions from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka & Thailand participated in the 3 day training to become Aflatoun trainers. Lasalette Gumban from NATCCO co-facilitated the event.

Africa - In a show of regional collaboration, one of the Aflatoun trainers from Kenya, Wallace Amayo, conducted training for teachers and trainers in Gambia. This will aid Child Fund-Gambia, Aflatoun's local partner, to implement the Aflatoun programme in the near future.

Having attended the regional training earlier last month, trainers from Burkina Faso are now training 30 local teachers from 10 schools, as well as other local trainers. This will prepare the schools in the country to implement the Aflatoun programme in the following months.

Europe- As we announced in last month's newsletter, Aflatoun Secretariat staff took part in a meeting at the House of Lords in the UK, chaired by Baroness Valerie Howarth, and in collaboration with Aflatoun's partner in the UK, Hampshire Children's service. An Advisory Committee was set up that will help spread Child Social and Financial Education across the UK.

Also in Europe, at a meeting held at the Dutch Central Bank, Aflatoun's partner in the Netherlands, Plan Netherland, officially launched the contextualized Dutch materials. The Director of the Dutch Central Bank, Ms Joanne Kellerman, expressed her support for the Aflatoun initiatives and advocated for financial education as an important topic in Dutch curricula.

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