Newsletters

Dear Friends,

May greetings from Aflatoun!

There are less than two months to go for the 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 50 countries.

May Headlines

This May we celebrate the launch of two new Aflatoun Programmes in Ecuador with Christian Children's Fund and in Peru with FINCA! With Ecuador on board, Aflatoun is now being implemented in 23 countries.

We are also happy to share a new World Economic Forum publication on “Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs”, showcasing the Aflatoun Programme. This month, we feature a special on Aflatoun's evaluation approach. As our programmes grow, our M&E processes are growing too, and we would like to share Aflatoun's approach to M&E this month.

May's The Aflatoun Network Talks features a quote from Aflatoun's soon to launch programme in Ghana with WADEP, where they started their own national newsletter to keep all the communities up to date with the Aflatoun Movement in Ghana. Also, we highlight our commitment to the UNCRC this month with a reminder on A Child's Right under Article 15—can you guess what it is about?

Finally, thanks to all the amazing teachers taking Aflatoun to children all across the globe. Read all about it in the May Aflatoun Talk!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aflatoun goes live in schools with CCF in Ecuador!

Thanks to a partnership with Christian Children's Fund-Ecuador, the Aflatoun Programme has launched this month in the Los Bancos area of Ecuador. After running a pre-pilot for a few months, the programme has officially gone live with the programme. Children in each school have already started Aflatoun Clubs for their savings and other activities. The savings are being kept in the classrooms, protected by each teacher. Once the children accumulate USD $10 in savings they will be able to open accounts in cooperatives or the local bank. The new programme in Ecuador brings the total of Aflatoun countries in Latin America to five. Congratulations to the newest Aflatoun Programme!

Aflatoun goes live with MFI FINCA in Peru!

In Ayacucho, Peru, the children of FINCA's microfinance clients are now learning about social responsibility, savings, enterprise with Aflatoun. FINCA, a recognised Microfinance Institutions (MFI), is taking the programme to children in urban and rural areas of Ayacucho. The Aflatoun Clubs meet weekly at the village banks around yacucho, during the afternoons when the majority of clients visit the offices. Each class has an average of 25 children. FINCA, is the second MFI to implement Aflatoun with the children of clients, after Fundacion Paraguaya developed the model in Paraguay. As Aflatoun children go through the programme, they will also learn how to better use the MFI's services, making it a natural fit to link Aflatoun with client's children.

Aflatoun in World Economic Forum Entrepreneurship Report!

This last month, Aflatoun was featured in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) new publication on entrepreneurship education titled: “Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs.” The report is a result of the WEF's Global Education Initiative and its goal to stimulate entrepreneurship education globally. The report provides a call to action for leaders to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurship to flourish. It also calls for leaders to reform education systems to integrate entrepreneurship education into national curricula. The report examines different approaches in educating children and youth on enterprise, such as the Aflatoun Programme. It features Aflatoun's examples of enterprises across Aflatoun school programmes in Uganda, The Philippines, Argentina and other countries.

Aflatoun's M&E Approach

As Aflatoun's programmes continue to develop across and within countries, its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems are also developing. In 2008, Aflatoun introduced a network-wide evaluation strategy that will be implemented by Aflatoun programme partners in the coming years. This work will be made possible by a grant from the Jacobs Foundation. To find out more about Aflatoun's Evaluation approach read the new Aflatoun Evaluation  A review of the Aflatoun's evaluation results to date is available here

All evaluation work is published on an annual basis in Children & Change, Aflatoun's flagship publication. The 2009 edition of Children & Change will debut this July 6th during Aflatoun's global Mid-Campaign Meeting.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Aflatoun Network Talks

In Ghana, the Aflatoun Programme is in the making—but before launching, Aflatoun's partner organization in the country WADEP, (the Women and Development Project), thought of an innovative way to keep all its communities and supporters informed about the new project. WADEP, is implementing the programme with support from the Turing Foundation, SNV World, and Plan Ghana.

“Aflatoun is really about learning through play and interaction. WADEP has selected 16 schools in Nkwanta District to run on pilot. During the briefing sessions in the individual schools, teachers observed that integration into the main curriculum, would see more children benefiting from it (Aflatoun).” Click here to view WADEP's newsletter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 15: Children have the right to choose their own friends and join or set up groups [like an Aflatoun Club], as long as these are not harmful to themselves or others.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A final word of Thanks to Aflatoun teachers!

This month's words of thanks are dedicated to the over 11,000 Aflatoun teachers across the globe. These last weeks, many teachers are being trained on the Aflatoun methodology, as the school year starts across many countries. We know that at the end of the day, it is teachers who are entrusted with creating the Aflatoun mindset among children. Thanks to all those teachers who take the Aflatoun Curriculum and bring it to life!

Stay up to date with Aflatoun on Facebook and Twitter

You can friend, follow, or comment on Aflatoun via Facebook or via Twitter.