UPLift--Poverty Alleviation For The Ultra-Poor

UPLift is a program designed to empower communities on the Thai/Burmese border that lack food security, opportunities for income, and education. Through the use of small grants and skills trainings, these families receive the opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty without having to rely on external aid indefinitely.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Financial Literacy Skills for Burmese Migrants

KLDF has begun its second year of providing financial literacy trainings for Burmese migrant women in and around Mae Sot.  A unique set of informal community trainings designed to give simple and effective methods for money management are now being implemented with a group of migrants working in a cattle yard / market outside of town.

What Are These Financial Literacy Trainings?
This project began in 2011 when Khom Loy competed in Project Inspire, a social entrepreneurship project created by U.N. Women Singapore and Mastercard Foundation.  After winning a USD$10,000 Financial Literacy Project grant, Khom Loy then worked with local partners in 2012 to deliver a full set of trainings at a landfill (dump) community in Mae Sot.

The set of trainings consists of five different topics:
  • Market Session (an interactive game that simulates an average day for women in which they need to manage money to balance their lives between work, home and opportunities for the future.)
  • Money Beliefs/Goals
  • Savings Planning
  • Household Budget Planning
  • Time Management / Time As a Value
These are informal trainings, meaning that they rely more on facilitation and activities than a formal classroom setting.  In addition, they take place in small groups in the community itself, rather than a large meeting-type setting.  This gives participants less anxiety about attending the training, and more confidence when sharing their own experiences and opinions.

We have both English and Burmese language manuals for this training.  To see a copy of these modules, feel free to email Mark (mark@khomloy.org) for more information!

Community Partner (Wide Horizons)
Wide Horizons School, a  learning center set up by World Education Thailand, has 24 students each year who study project management skills, theory and use an intensive English language program to improve their abilities.  Upon completing one year of study, they then each return to work for a local NGO or CBO working with different ethnic groups from Burma.

Wide Horizons students fill a very important role in the Financial Literacy Projects by serving as community trainers.  After receiving the course themselves (along with some training and tips on how to be an effective trainer) from Khom Loy staff, they then adapt the modules for use in the community and split into five smaller groups that cover five different areas of the community on five different days.  Each Wide Horizons student takes responsibility for trainings + decision making + logistics for their given group on any given day.

Follow-Up
Upon completing the five days of community trainings, we hold a celebration dinner to give words of encouragement and motivation to the participants.  After this, Khom Loy staff then plans to make frequent visits to the five different community areas for the rest of 2013 in order to give the women technical support on their own savings plans.

Schedule
Last week (January 7-11) was the Wide Horizons in-school training and module adaptation period.  The trainings in the cattle yard community began this past Tuesday, January 15th and run until the end of next week, January 25th.  We will keep you informed with photo and video updates as we compile them!

Donors
We would also like to thank the generous support from U.N. Women (Singapore) and World Education Thailand for funding portions of this year's training.  We are grateful for you to be interested in promoting women's empowerment and financial literacy on the Thai/Burma border!
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