VELLORE: Hope House, an NGO, has taken the lead in introducing an innovative programme to help economically disadvantaged children living in hilly villages to gain financial literacy. Around 100 students from seven schools in Javadhu hills have been covered through this programme which was launched a month back.
‘Financial Literacy and Life skills for Youth through Training and Empowerment (FLYTE)’is a child-focused community development program. ‘While Prime Minister Modi’s Jan Dhan programme has given the necessary impetus for economically disadvantaged section of the society to avail government subsidy through banks, we want to enable children to gain financial literacy, as well as cultivate the habit of saving while growing up to be wholesome productive individuals in the community they live in’ noted Ruby Nakka, director of Hope House.
According to him financial literacy in addition to formal education would enable children to learn to combat economic disadvantage and take economic decisions that lead to the overall development of communities. ‘Actually we tried this progamme at a small level at Hope House that takes care of around 20 orphaned children. Two older children who were able to save around `10,000 were able to get admission into nursing course at CMC, much to the surprise of their relatives. This made us think and extend the programme to a select group of five schools in Javadhi Hills,’ Ruby explained.
In order to apply this concept at the field level, Hope House has entered into partnership with another NGO Don Bosco Tribal Development Center (DBTDC) of Javvadu Hills. Ruby said that FLYTE would be implemented only in government or government-aided schools for a period of five years. Students whose family income is less than `1 lakh per year will be selected.
Participating students open a recurrent deposit account in the nearby bank of their choice to deposit a minimum of `100 each month. Upon verifying that the student has deposited the stipulated money in the accountn, a sum of `200 (Rs 100 from Hope and another `100 from DBTDC) would be handed over to the student for depositing the same to the account.