Kaira Nyining Federation (KNF), a ChildFund affiliated body based in Faraba Banta village in Kombo East, West Coast Region, Friday celebrated the International Aflatoun Day at Basori Lower Basic School.

Aflatoun is a ChildFund pilot project in 18 schools in the West Coast Region, and Kaira Nyining Federation is piloting the initiative in three lower basic schools in Kombo East. It is a project that provides children with the building blocks of life, encouraging them to save their resources and start social and financial micro-enterprises. Through social and financial education, children are empowered to make a positive change in their lives and in their communities, which may eventually break the vicious cycle of poverty.

Speaking at the occasion, Famara Kujabi, senior education officer, Region Two, said since his office established collaboration with ChildFund on the project, it has immensely helped a lot in inculcating in the students the culture of saving for the future. The Aflatoun programme, he explained has come at a right time and has proven successful in the three schools in Kombo East and other schools in the region.

Kujabi used the occasion to call on the parents to collaborate with ChildFund and the Regional Education Office, with a view to providing proper upbringing of the children and to prepare them for the future. The child and youth officer of Kaira Nyining Federation, Lamin Darboe, saidAflatoun and its partners are helping children learn about their rights, save and start enterprises in 80 countries.

He underscored that the Aflatoun habit in children has helped to ease financial burden on parents in Kombo East as the children save to buy materials such as pens, pencils and books. “It has even helped pupils who saved money from grade one to six pay part of their school fees for themselves,” he said.

Darboe went further to state that the objective of Aflatoun is the reduction of poverty with the help of socially and financially empowered children. “We believe that children should be taught to understand their rights and responsibilities and strive to ensure that child financial education is viewed as a right for every child across the globe,” he added. He told the gathering that Aflatoun also teaches school children to understand that they also have certain responsibilities to play in families, communities as well as societies and the nation.

While assuring parents that ChildFund The Gambia and Kaira Nyining will always be in support and stand for the development of the children, Darboe also assured the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and others of his Federation’s unreserved commitment to the cause. The day also witnessed the presentation of Aflatoun’s annual report by three schools in Kombo East that implemented the initiative.