The new university year is just starting in Cambodia. After several years of cooperation with Enfants du Mekong, we have created a curriculum over the 3 or 4 years that students are sponsored by Enfants du Mekong. Objectives: (1) maximise the impact of the FE programme so that graduated students have all the necessary tools to manage their first income, (2) go from a pilot programme to a more sustainable programme integrated in the long term education project of EdM.
- Year 1 students are introduced to money management as long as they open their first bank account and ge to manage their first monthly sponsorship. (see training 15-16 October)
- Year 2 students attend a follow up session to review what they learned in year 1, assess what they have implemented, go further on some topics (how to manage utilities, rent, commitments…) and introduce topics such as values and the social impact of money (how money can interact in their relationships with friends and family).
- Year 4 students attend a last training before they graduate and fend for themselves.While reviewing the basics (budget, savings…), topics such as decision-taking, managing family’s money requests, budgeting a project… such as a wedding and values are also introduced.
- Bilingual booklets and interim review sessions will also be added.
Next step: making the multi-year programme sustainable and facilitated by EdM Khmer staff- the same way as the FE programme for families is.
This weekend, we tested the new Year 2 and Year 4 training.
Year 2: what did they implement in six months.
reviewing last year’s training main messages
good and bad pieces of advise on spending…
identifying what expenses are difficult to manage and brainstorming on practical solutions to better manage them.
discussing situation cases where honesty, trust or other values come into play. 
happy budgeters!
