El Ahorro es Importante - Saving is Important

Just this past May we were very proud to announce that Colombia received the country award for their 2013 Global Money Week activities during the second annual Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) summit awards ceremony in Istanbul.

Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting Global Money Week activities in Colombia was the launch of the first national savings video contest, entitled “El Ahorro es Importante” (Saving is Important). It was led by Save the Children in Colombia with support from the Central Bank. The contest prompted children and youth aged 10-18 to create a two minute video expressing why saving was important for their future. The prizes included 3 iPads (donated by the Central Bank) for the best individual or group video, and a concert by the pop band Wamba for the school that submitted the largest number of videos.

During the 6 weeks in which the contest was run, we received more than 130 video submissions from every corner of the country! Selecting the winners was not an easy task, as the videos were exceptional in both quality and creativity. Thus, the communications team from Save the Children shortlisted the top 24 videos, and then the official selection committee, composed of the Central Bank, SENA, Finanzas para el Cambio, Asobancaria and Save the Children, rated and voted on the best individual and group video winner.

La Fagua School, located in the municipality of Chía, submitted 43 videos and was declared the winner school. As promised, on June 14th a Wamba concert was set up on school grounds. We provided more than 400 children and youth with the opportunity to listen to the band, while being encouraged to keep learning and telling us about saving! To watch the video of this fantastic event, please click here.

Finally, on August 15th we conducted an award ceremony to congratulate and deliver prizes to the winners of the best video. The event was opened by the Central Bank´s manager Mr. José Darío Uribe, who presented the iPads to the excited team of winners: Christian Barreto, Viviana Gutierrez and Johan Sebastian Aguirre. Their video was called “Piensa en tu Futuro, Ahorra” (Think About Your Future, Save), which contained a meaningful message on the importance of saving money, as well as natural resources. During the ceremony, we also highlighted the great job of the contestants that were in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place. They were each awarded with a savings kits that contained a Save the Children piggy bank and other small gifts.

The video contest was an amazing success, and an engaging way to encourage young people to think about the importance of saving. We look forward to holding the contest again next year. We hope that many more youth will be able to participate to win great prizes and get excited abut saving for their very own futures.