A Summer Camp on Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is the possession of a unique set of skills, as well as knowledge, that allow an individual to make informed effective decisions with all of their financial resources.  It is also an area of interest for the Ministry of Education since it helps to prepare children and young adults for the future.  While most students are enjoying time away from their books this summer, twenty-five young men and women were participating in an academic and practical course on how to manage their money.

Diane Danderson

Dr. Diane Danderson, Ministry of Education

“The Ministry of Education through its partners PWC, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and Peace Work does financial literacy training.  And so this week, since it’s summer we decided to do a training for twenty-five youths and these youths are actually a part of the Youth Leadership Council.  The Youth Leadership Council is a group of students who receives scholarships through the PWC, so a part of the training and the mentoring that we do is financial literacy.  So that is what this week is focused on.”

Isani Cayetano

“How important is financial literacy for this particular target audience?”

Bernice Ramirez

Diane Danderson

“Okay, these students are high school students.  Some of them are in first, some are in second, third and fourth and so we believe that the earlier we start the better.  We actually have a program in primary school as well.  These students, in addition to just talking about money, because a lot of people think financial literacy is only about money, it’s also about building your future and career planning and a lot of these students are at that point where they’re starting to think, “Okay, what do I do next?  Where do I go?  How do I fund my college education?”  And so this week allows them an opportunity to start to think about their goal setting, what do they want to do, how do they finance that and all of that that comes along with it.”

Bernice Ramirez, Facilitator

“Financial literacy is a quintessential component of our if we want to see Belize continue to become a more prosperous country because many of these youths, they have these very great ambitions and dreams.  So I think fostering this financial literacy has enabled them to not just have this vague ambition or dream but to actually develop a course, a plan of action for them to actually reach that goal.”