How did working with Aflatoun International influence you on both personal and professional levels?
I am much honoured to be part of a great international team standing for civilizational changes in the world!
I got acquainted with the Aflatoun International Programme of Social and Financial Education through a representative of Moldova in 2011 during our common internship regarding work with disabled children and youth in Israel. I immediately recognized the organization as being completely unique.
Back in the day, I was the head of Social Services Center for Families, Children and Youth. Every day I had to deal with problems of poor families and the transition of the poverty pattern from one generation to another. I was searching for a programme which would unite both objective and subjective components of education, as well as provide knowledge and skills necessary for creating a better and happier life.
In May 2012 in Baku, I took part in an Aflatoun Training of Trainers and received a certificate of a Regional Trainer. After returning to Ukraine, to my home town Vinnytsia, I began to facilitate a number of Training of Teachers sessions together with a local NGO ‘The School of Equal Opportunities’ which I was a member of.
In your opinion, why is Social and Financial Education so important for children and youth?
The Aflatoun Programme provides children with sustainable knowledge about themselves and the world around them. The programme helps to develop unique financial and communicational skills, thanks to which children start feeling more confident in their communities.
In my opinion, the Aflatoun Programme is a great opportunity for children and youth to receive fundamental and systematic knowledge and acquire necessary skills for becoming a happier person. From the sustainable perspective, children are taught to take responsibility for their actions, their lives, the destiny of the world, to become agents of changes and lead the world towards a better future.
Could you share an example of how the Aflatoun Programme influenced a child, a teacher or parents? For example, a story from one of the training sessions that caught your attention.
There was a quiet, shy girl in one of the classes, a typical “wallflower”. Her class decided to organize an Aflatoun fair and collect money for Christmas decorations and a class trip. Everyone received their tasks, and this girl got the role of a seller. After she had sold her first cookie, she ran to her teacher and cried, happily: “I know who I want to become when I grow up – a seller!” Afterwards, she became quite active and more successful at school. It made us very happy: if we managed to help at least one child to choose a profession, then it is worth to continue using this programme.
During our training sessions, I often hear that kindergarten teachers are very excited that the Aflatoun Programme offers a unique system of concepts of Social and Financial Education which they have never been introduced to before. Not so long ago during an advocacy activity ‘Social and Financial Education for children – the foundation of a Happy Community’, a primary school teacher shared that when she spoke to her students about the Aflatoun character, they raised their hands and toldher that they already knew the character from before, from their kindergartens! That definitely means that the knowledge is already being passed on!
The programme changes not only children`s lives, but also the lives of their parents, grandparents, teachers and kindergarten teachers. It inspires adults and fills the gaps in their knowledge regarding society and finance! I know that, with the help of the programme, a teacher managed to pay off her credit. It is all thanks to the Aflatoun`s magic!
Aflatoun International’s Programme of Social and Financial Education for children is a programme which, by means of education, keeps changing the direction of movement of our civilization towards a Happier Life!