Colombia Wins Global Money Week Award

At the second annual Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) Summit awards ceremony, held last week in Istanbul, Colombia received an award for Global Money Week 2013, a week long set of activities in which “children and youth from across the world learn about saving, banking, giving back to the community and sparking their entrepreneurial spirit,” organized by the CYFI movement. According to CYFI, 80 countries, 185 institutions, and 1 million children officially participated in the over 1000 organized activities which ran from March 15-21, 2013.

Save the Children partnered with the Central Bank of Colombia and a number of local organizations and commercial banks to organize activities themed around savings in 32 schools in Bogotá, Medellin, Cali and Pasto. Activities were designed to empower children of all ages to start saving for their goals, while letting them have fun. For older children and youth, a short savings assembly included a 30-minute interactive presentation on the importance of savings, spending versus saving, how to make a savings plan, formal and informal mechanisms to save, and myths about banks and savings accounts. Save the Children held assemblies in 7 schools in Medellin, Cali and Pasto, reaching a total of 1,274 boys and girls.

In Bogotá, Global Money Week events were held in 3 schools. In addition to the savings assembly, there were interactive activities with storytellers and dance groups, as well as a visit from the Central Bank´s mascot – a dog named Rodolfo – who taught children about Colombian coins and how to identify counterfeit bank notes. In one of the schools, the Colombian pop band Wamba taught children about the importance of saving through our now well-known (in Colombia) savings song. Watch a video of these activities and to see what participants learned.

Finally, partners also held a video contest, which encouraged children and youth to create a video expressing why they think that saving is important for their future. Prizes include iPads (donated by the Central Bank) and a performance by Wamba at the winner’s school. You can view all the great submissions online! Winners will be announced at the end of May.

YouthSave aims to empower children to think about their financial rights and develop their financial capabilities. As such, we congratulate our colleagues in Colombia for their well-deserved recognition as the Global Money Week Award winning team!