ASPIRE (Asociación para Inversión y Empleo) is a social management organisation in the Dominican Republic which has been in operation since 1983. Its aim is to encourage children and young people to develop a culture of saving and managing resources, empowering them both financially and socially.
Our partnership
We started partnering with ASPIRE in 2019 they launched our Aflatoun curriculum. “Thanks to this partnership we strengthened our mission as an organisation and managed to introduce children and young people to the financial market by educating them about cooperatives and giving them the opportunity to open their first savings account,” a staff member shared with us.
ASPIRE Youth Training
ASPIRE shared with us the story of Kelvin, a 13-year old boy who lives in Santo Domingo. In 2019 he took part in one of their financial education trainings at the local school “Centro Buenas Nuevas. This is Kelvin’s story, told by himself.
Before taking part in the Aspire Youth training, I was already saving, but I didn’t have great discipline either big ambitions. My goal at that time was to buy a cell phone. However, during the training, I learned that saving could go further. It could mean not just saving money but also resources like water, electricity, fuel and food. This made me realise I could actually dream bigger and work to achieve my dreams – to support my parents buy a new house and to buy myself a car when I go to college. And one day in the future I might even become a baseball player.
For the Entrepreneurship Fair that takes place at the end of the Aspire training programme, my mom helped me make ice cream. I managed to sell everything at once, that way I paid to open my savings account. That filled me with so much pride. My own account! Seeing my joy and commitment, my brothers also started saving and took the Aflatoun training. Then my mom opened saving accounts on their names as well. Now we all have bank accounts and can save money for our future.
