Financial education
Latin America and the Caribbean
With the support of Citi Foundation, Habitat for Humanity Latin America and the Caribbean has successfully implemented a regional financial education program for more than five years. Through the program, more than 17,000 low-income families have learned valuable skills about managing their household finances.
What is financial education?
The Financial Education Program provides tools and training to help families better administer their resources and save for the future.
Efficient money management means meeting daily needs, as well as coping with emergencies or unexpected opportunities that arise. The training workshop offers participants basic, fundamental tools about careful money management. It helps them to prioritize expenses, create a family budget, develop good credit ratings, create a savings plan for home improvements, and even how to organize remittances received from family members living abroad.
Methodology and materials
The workshops are developed with adult education methodologies, based on the premise that adults have more life experience than children and therefore have more examples as a reference when they are learning. Adults have clearer understanding of the skills they already have, what new skills they want to learn, and a desire to seek knowledge when they feel ready. Most adults want to apply or practice what they are learning in the real world.
Download financial education materials
Brochure: Managing your money and achieving your goal of a better house
Brochure: The money your family member sends you is an opportunity
The methodology is based upon the needs and potential of the participants, and includes:
- Group work and discussion
- Experiential, reflexive and participative sessions
- Immediate application of learning
What do we offer?
Habitat for Humanity offers:
- Design of the financial education program.
- Advice on family financial management.
- Development and facilitation of workshops and orientation sessions for Habitat clients and staff.
- Follow-up sessions for all participants.
- Measurement and evaluation of changes in behavior after participants have received financial education training.
In addition:
- Training of trainers in financial education workshop methodology for Habitat national organizations, in order that they can develop a successful program.
- Direct training for Habitat partner families, clients and stakeholders.
- Technical assistance for the program.
For more information, please contact the program coordinator at:
Mario Morán
Financial Education Project Manager
[email protected]
Tel: (506) 2296-8120, Ext. 4043
San José, Costa Rica
Country contacts:
HFH Argentina
Analia Bachor | [email protected]
HFH Bolivia
Maria Teresa Prado | [email protected]
HFH Brasil
Claudio Braga | [email protected]
HFH Colombia
Enna Sofia Lemus | [email protected]
HFH Costa Rica
Ofelia Blanco | [email protected]
HFH El Salvador
Beatriz Bejarano | [email protected]
HFH Guatemala
Olga García | [email protected]
HFH Honduras
Omar Inestroza | [email protected]
HFH México
Arturo Hernández | [email protected]
HFH Nicaragua
Fanny Montes | [email protected]
HFH Paraguay
Fatima Canete | [email protected]
HFH Rep. Dominicana
Jose Luis Tapia | [email protected]
FEDECACES
Hugo Anaya | [email protected]
Videos
Why is Financial Education important? What is the difference between an expense and an investment? Today, more than ever, economically active families need to understand how to best manage their finances. This video provides a brief overview of the Financial Education Program in Latin America and the Caribbean.