When Thida was 10 years old she spent her money on toys, junk food, and other things that she wanted. She did not know how the value of money and did not understand the need to save for any emergency needs in the future. This was before attending the Cufa’s Children’s Financial Literacy program during the 2012-13 school year which laid the foundation for her future goals.
Today, Thida is 17 years old and lives with her parents, 2 sisters in Cambodia. She is the youngest daughter and her father works in the construction industry and her mother grows vegetables and raises chickens. Thida is now a first year university student at University studying a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English Literature with a career goal of becoming an English teacher.
Thida says “the knowledge I received from the program 7 years ago when I was in grade 6 at primary school had a significant impact on me and it prepared me to set and strive to achieve higher goals from my small savings that I had then started.”
“After attending the Cufa program during school, I started saving her money in a piggy bank which I had asked my mother to buy it for me”, Thida said. “I set my savings goals, and first saved to pay for study materials, my school uniform and a bicycle”, she added.
Thida always hoped to continue to study at university when she was at primary school because her uncle was studying at university at that time. Thida said she really wanted to thank Cufa and the donors that supported the CFL project in Cambodia as the CFL program provided her with the money management skills when she was young laying the foundation that allowed her to develop a strong habit of saving and managing her money well.
Nowadays, she still saving money in her piggy bank but only 500 riels (18c AUD) a day as she spends more money now on her university needs.
Many children, like Thida, in poor communities in Cambodia can’t save the money for their school fees due to the low income of their family household but what they can do and useful for the family is saving the money to buy their school materials and uniform.
Read more about Cufa’s programs at cufa.org.au/our-programs/
