Newsletters

Dear Friends,

June greetings from Aflatoun!

We are weeks away from Aflatoun's Mid-Campaign Meeting in Cairo this July 5-7, 2009, where Egypt's First lady HE Mrs. Suzan Mubarak will convene Aflatoun country programmes and stakeholders from over 60 countries.

Launched in March 2008, the two-year Campaign aims to bring the Aflatoun curriculum to 1 million children in 75 countries by the end of 2010. With your help, we are now well on the way, with over 540,000 children in 24 countries as of this month!

June Headlines

This June we celebrate the launch of two new Aflatoun Country programmes in Sudan with SNEFA and Plan International and in Jordan with Jordan River Foundation! With Ecuador on board, Aflatoun is now being implemented in 24 countries.

On June 9-12, in Indonesia, Aflatoun completed its first country-wide training for new partners in the country. National-level trainings of trainers, like this one, are part of a new global Aflatoun training strategy.

We also wish to highlight Aflatoun global partnership with the World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI), a global network of savings banks and socially committed retail banks. Through this partnership Aflatoun savers are linked to formal and child friendly savings accounts.

June's The Aflatoun Network Talks features a quote from the newsletter of Aflatoun's Ugandan partner ,The Private Education Development Network(PEDN).

Also, we highlight our commitment to the UNCRC this month with a reminder on A Child's Right under Article 19—can you guess what it is about?

Finally, a big welcome to all the new Aflatoun partner organizations joining the Aflatoun movement worldwide—thanks to you we are on track to reach our 2010 Campaign goal of 1 million children in 75 countries.

Read all about it in the June Aflatoun Talk!

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Aflatoun goes live in schools in Sudan with Plan & SNEFA!

Thanks to a partnership with Plan International in Sudan and the Sudanese Network for Education for All (SNEFA), the Aflatoun Programme has launched this month in two different areas of Sudan. SNEFA, after consulting with the ministry of education and curricula experts, goes live as a pilot phase in five schools where four clubs have been set up in the White Nile state. Twenty teachers and ten trainers have been trained on the Aflatoun programme to deliver the programme to 100 children. The programme is being supported by Plan Sudan in the White Nile State. Congratulations to Plan and SENFA for bring the Aflatoun Programme to Sudan!

Aflatoun goes live in Jordan with Jordan River Foundation!

Jordan River Foundation (JRF), with the blessing of the ministry of education, goes live in six schools in eastern Amman and one NFE center (the Queen Rania Center for Family and Children). JRF will expand into additional schools under the Madrasati (My School) Initiative and train 54 teachers and counsellors. JRF has also developed their own set of Aflatoun books. Congratulations to JRF for bringing the first Aflatoun Programme to Jordan!

Aflatoun & WSBI Partner for Financial Inclusion

This last month, Aflatoun was featured in WSBI's 22nd World Congress which focused on Financial Inclusion in a Globalised World. Aflatoun's director Jeroo Billimoria spoke on the importance of empowering children and youth with financial access and education, seeing as over 50% of the developing world's population is under the age of 15.

Aflatoun has launched a global partnership with WSBI to connect Aflatoun Programmes to WSBI's member savings banks and socially committed retail banks. WSBI has over 110 financial institutions as members in over 90 countries. WSBI is also partnering with Aflatoun to further the advocacy agenda on financial literacy and savings accounts access for children and youth. Recently, WSBI also launched a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded initiative to double the amount of savings accounts in the hands of the poor in 5 years. Aflatoun Programmes have partnerships with WSBI banks in countries like Uganda, The Philippines and Lesotho.

Aflatoun-Indonesia Trains!

Aflatoun Indonesia is gearing up in its preparations to launch a national Aflatoun Programme. The first Aflatoun Training of Trainers took place from June 9-12 in Jakarta. The training was conducted by the Aflatoun Secretariat and NATCCO Philippines, in an effort to provide twinning learning experience. It was hosted by Learning Assistance Project for Islamic Schools (LAPIS). 22 participants attended the training from Plan International, Child Fund Indonesia (formerly CCF), UNICEF, and KKSP. This is the first of many new national-level training events that are part of Aflatoun's new global training strategy. This new training strategy aims to create regional cadres of Aflatoun trainers and experts to develop regional and national knowledge bases on the Aflatoun Programme.

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The Aflatoun Network Talks

This month, Aflatoun was featured in Private Education Development Network's newsletter in Uganda, where Aflatoun club members in Kamuli District are preparing small gardens in their schools as their club project.

“Each school prepared a small Aflatoun garden. [Now,]Aflatoun children will be equipped with modern farming methods and entrepreneurship skills to utilize locally available resources; identify, start and sustainably manage their own Income Generating Activities.”

Private Education Development Network (PEDN), Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1

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The UNCRC  - It's a Child's Right

The Aflatoun Talk section on children's rights reminds us all of one “Article” or Right quoted in child-friendly language from the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

May's child right is Article 19: Children have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, in body or mind.

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A final word of Thanks to new Aflatoun partner organizations!

This month's words of thanks are dedicated to new Aflatoun programmes in Sudan and Jordan.

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