Chit Su is 8 years old and lives with her mother, father and brother in Myanmar. Her father is a farmer and though he doesn’t earn much to support his family, her parents give her some pocket money every day so that she can buy some good food to eat at school. But Chit Su would spend all her pocket money on buying dolls as like any other young girl she loved playing with them. Whenever she was free from her homework, she was usually playing with her dolls as she felt happy while she was playing them. She was always thinking of buying a new one even though she had already owned many dolls. Then just over one year ago Chit Su attended at her first Cufa financial literacy session and she has not bought another doll or toy since.

Chit Su is a very bright student and often stands first in her class. Her interest was sparked at her very first financial literacy lesson, after which she decided to attend the Cufa Children’s Financial Literacy (CFL) training sessions whenever the CFL teacher came to her  village. To date she has attended financial literacy sessions 18 times and has acquired a lot of financial knowledge from Cufa booklet that is provided to each program participant.

Image: Chit Su reading her Cufa financial literacy booklet to 2 of her firlends.

Chit Su was so interested in the sessions and learning about savings and how to spend money that often she would choose to attend a session rather than play with her friends. It was on the day that she learnt about “saving money”, that Chit Su made up her mind to open a savings account at her village saving bank to enable her to save her pocket money regularly. The sessions also taught Chit Su about the difference of spending money on wants versus needs. Now Chit Su is content playing with the dolls and toys she already has rather than buying new ones with her pocket money.

The program has also taught Chit Su about developing short and long-term savings goals. Chit Su has set a long-term savings goal of funding her university education and this is now what she is saving regularly towards.

To read more about Cufa’s Children’s Financial Literacy Program go to www.cufa.org.au/our-programs