By Deron Denton
Poor children typically grow up not learning how to save and responsibly manage money. With parents who were never taught these skills – and who are struggling just to meet basic daily needs – the reality means there simply isn’t much to manage.
Jeennyffer, now 20, grew up in such conditions. Living in the farming village of Santa Rosita, Guatemala, her house lacked running water, and the family used a latrine for their sanitation needs. She recalls being happy when it rained heavily, even if it resulted in flooding, because that meant one less trek over three arduous miles (roundtrip) to fetch safe drinking water.
Just a few years ago, Jeennyffer (back, left) was a youth leader in Aflatoun. Now, she is helping run the program for CI’s Guatemala agency.
Jeennyffer recalls from a very young age helping her parents plant and harvest beans and corn in the fields surrounding their community. She says their long and backbreaking labor didn’t amount to much more than subsistence farming. Half of their crop was consumed by the family. “They sold the other half so they could send us children to school,” says Jeennyffer. “It was a big help when I became sponsored,” she adds, “because I received the benefits of school supplies.”
Many of her peers – if they made it through primary school – dropped out before completing their secondary educations, often because their families couldn’t afford basic supplies such as notebooks and pencils. Jeennyffer, though, was inspired by role models to do well in school and become more involved with her community. Edwin Reyes, who was a former sponsored child, had become the facilitator of the Youth Health Corps (YHC) in Guatemala. He motivated Jeennyffer to become active in the YHC. This, she says, was when she really began to blossom. “I had the opportunity to share with other youth,” says Jeennyffer, “and develop skills such as public speaking, leadership, organization and public relations.”
One of the highlights of her entire experience with Children International, she remembers, came soon after joining the health awareness initiative that is the YHC: Jeennyffer earned the opportunity to be the youth leader of the program.
As a teen, Jeennyffer was inspired by a CI staff member to join the Youth Program. Now, she inspires other young people as the agency’s Aflatoun facilitator.
From being inspired, it wasn’t long before Jeennyffer experienced that joy from the other side of the street. “It was great to learn I could inspire others,” she says “and share knowledge that helps them improve their lives.”
From there, she moved on to become active in Aflatoun, the program that helps kids learn to responsibly manage resources, learn about their rights, and gain financial skills. And shortly before she graduated from the sponsorship program last year, Jeennyffer became the co-facilitator of Aflatoun, while also studying at university to become a teacher. She played a big role in a phenomenal success story…
Aflatoun participants are encouraged to share what they learn with family members. “And in the Aflatoun club where I was participating,” says Jeennyffer, “there were many non-sponsored children who’d never had a new pair of shoes.” Over the course of about six months, she recalls, all these younger children, mostly siblings of older sponsored kids, used financial strategies to earn and save enough money to buy their first pair of new shoes.
The major focus of Aflatoun is helping children learn and develop financial acumen through age-appropriate games and interactive workshops. They gain knowledge about how to open bank accounts, start microbusinesses, and responsibly manage other resources, such as water, electricity and recyclable waste. Participants also learn about their personal rights and the responsibilities that go with them, including community-improvement activities.
Ultimately, it is all a part of empowering children and youth and showing them ways to improve their lives.
“In a community like this,” Jeennyffer says, “where the resources are few, learning how to manage them is important for survival. And that is what Aflatoun teaches. For those children to learn the skills needed to save money and purchase their own pair of shoes…” Jeennyffer pauses, willing the lump in her throat to disappear,…“that, in this society, is something hard to imagine.”
Photos and reporting assistance by Javier Cárcamo in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
