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.”

Jean Pier is a 9 year old student in Ayacucho, Peru, and is the proud president of his Aflatoun class. He attends the Aflatoun class every Wednesday, when he doesn't have to help his mother or study for exams. This class is given by FINCA Peru, a local Micro-Finance Institution, which has decided to implement the Aflatoun programme with the children of their clients. Together, the children learn about saving, managing money and developing personal and social awareness. Jean Pier, and many of his classmates, have already begun saving.

When asked about what he thinks of Aflatoun, Jean Pier responds “Here we learn a lot, here we are helped, and we learn to express ourselves.” He adds, “I save between 2 soles and 5 soles each week. Sometimes, it is a little difficult not to spend the money I save with Aflatoun.”

The local community, particularly the parents, embraced the programme in their town. Recently, several mothers of the Aflatoun children (the mothers are all FINCA borrowers themselves) told of how their children were very interested in saving, discussing it more at home and looking forward to their Aflatoun classes.

Jean Pier's mother thinks that Aflatoun “is lovely”. She says,“ [I find] interesting the good things that the children are learning with you. My son loves it. He says: ‘I too am going to save, let's go to FINCA!'”

How does Jean Pier plan to spend the money he has saved?

“I want to take my mother out to dinner!”

Jean Pier's enthusiasm at saving his money and learning about the other Aflatoun children across the world is echoed by his classmates. Working together, they are now starting their own enterprise, creating Christmas cards which will be sold in Canada. It is up to the children to decide what they will do with the profits, but already some have expressed some ideas:

“I would keep saving it!” - Betty

“I would buy clothes and go to different countries- Frank Anthony

“I would buy a soccer ball.” - Frank

“I would buy presents for my family.” - Kattery

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