For the fourth year running, Allianz Malaysia is organising an event for children in conjunction with Global Money Week in March 2016. Global Money Week is celebrated worldwide, with more than 960 organisations in 124 countries across continents participating and connecting with each other in 2016 to raise awareness on financial education among children and youth.
Global Money Week is coordinated and led by Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI), a non-profit organisation based in Amsterdam. It is a worldwide celebration intended to empower the next generation of financial actors to be confident, responsible and skilled economic citizens.
In support of Global Money Week, Allianz Malaysia organised a My Finance Coach class followed by an interactive activity on the PINTAR Mobile Learning Unit 2 (PMLU2) for Yayasan Chow Kit (YCK) children. YCK is a non-profit organisation that serves as a 24-hour crisis and drop-in centre that provides meals, activities, therapy, case management, and educational programmes for at-risk children of Chow Kit.
The theme for Global Money Week 2016 is ‘Take Part. Save Smart!’. CYFI believes that it is important for children and youth to learn and take part in clever cost-careful habits from an early age, in order to avoid financial exclusion and develop key money-managing skills for later in life.
“At Allianz Malaysia, financial literacy is one of our core corporate responsibility initiatives. Since 2012, we have implemented our own financial literacy programme, My Finance Coach. To date, we have reached out to over 6,900 students in 13 states across Malaysia. Being part of Global Money Week over the last three years enabled us to highlight the importance of financial education among young people through hosting fun events to address a significant issue,” said Ng Siew Gek, Head of Allianz4Good of Allianz Malaysia.
My Finance Coach is a non-profit initiative founded in Germany in 2010 by partner companies Allianz, Grey and McKinsey. It is a financial literacy programme aimed at improving the money management skills of young people. Under the My Finance Coach programme, employee volunteers trained as Finance Coaches pair up to conduct classes in schools and non-profit organisations.
The event was held at Kuala Lumpur Krash Pad (KLKP) for 21 Yayasan Chow Kit children aged 10 to 12 years old.
“Through our activities during Global Money Week, we hope to raise awareness on the importance of financial literacy. We are confident that these activities will enable the participating children to gain new information and insights into finance and hopefully instil an awareness of and interest in managing their own money.” concluded Ng.