Young children help parents save

CEBU, Philippines - In a small garage area converted into a functional classroom for little kids, Guadix Kiddie Center operates as a preschool for children in Barangay Luz, Cebu City.

Before the morning prayer, teacher Vilma is already busy tallying how many coins each child drops in a wooden box. The box is a small container used as a makeshift alkansiya for her students. Teacher  Vilma says kids are eager to drop their coins and paper bills in the box each day. This is part of  the saving method she applied in the classroom. 

The project started in October 2012, when parents attended a financial management session offered by the school. Parents realized that it is very important to save for future needs and emergencies.

Although they were willing to save, they expressed that they don't have the avenue to do so. They explained that if they set  aside money for saving at home, they end up spending the money on other things needed in the house.

This inspired teacher Vilma to come up with a scheme in their school to help the parents save through her students. She had individual canisters for each student where she first introduced the "one peso" a day saving method.

It was voluntary and parents would just give their child one peso that should be dropped in the savings canister. As appreciation for the practice grew, parents began giving their children twenty pesos or more for their savings.

Seeing that the parents were already motivated to save, teacher Vilma introduced the "bank" concept this year. Instead of individual canisters, they came up with a group savings box. Kids were able to drop their money in a big wooden box with her supervision for individual tallying of savings. 

When families needed the money, teacher Vilma allows them to withdraw part of their savings for needs like medicines, food, and for children's projects in school.

They would get all their savings at the end of the school year. 

According to some parents, saving is challenging and difficult but because of this, they now have extra money for emergencies.

The project not only provides the families with a way to save for their needs, it also teaches both parents and children the value of saving together. That is why it is never too early to start teaching your kids about money. It is, in fact, important to introduce saving money even to very young children, including pre-schoolers, and learn the value of money and saving for small goals.

Guadix is one of  the early childhood education centers supported by the grants program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.—Dolores Aboitiz Children's Fund (RAFI-DACF) in pursuit of the foundation's commitment to sharing good practices in Early Child Care and Development (ECCD). (FREEMAN)