MoneyMinded makes an impression in Uganda

Since 2018 I have been volunteering overseas and helping vulnerable communities in Uganda. I have been involved in caring for orphaned children and vulnerable women, building houses and helping the local communities with daily tasks.

After my second visit to Uganda in 2019, I realised I could use my skills and financial knowledge to have a greater and more specific impact in the community.

Global footprint

Upon returning I spoke about my experience with a colleague in Asia. He told me about his volunteering experience and how he felt after delivering a MoneyMinded workshop, the ANZ financial literacy training program for adults.

The conversation gave me an epiphany. Maybe I could deliver the MoneyMinded program in Uganda. This became my new goal.

In 2020, I used volunteer Leave to travel to Fiji and trained as a MoneyMinded Coach. I did the training in Fiji because the Asia and Pacific Island MoneyMinded training related more closely to Uganda’s economic situation.

After becoming an accredited coach, I booked a trip for mid-March 2020.

However, the Australian Federal Government had other plans for my flight. On Thursday 19 March the government declared COVID-19 a pandemic and the following day shut the borders to international travel – two days before I was due to depart.

At the time I was devasted I would not get back to Uganda anytime soon.

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Life changing experience

Finally, in September 2022 I embarked on my journey. In hindsight, it was perfect timing.

MoneyMinded gives people the tools to allow them to manage their money better. However, during a time of crisis (such as the global pandemic), people are not thinking about those tools. They are thinking, how do I survive?

In 2022 the harsh financial effects of the pandemic were over and people in Uganda were figuring out their ‘new normal’. This is a perfect time to start planning for the future.

The MoneyMinded training was so important to their community and the uptake was outstanding.

I asked the team to cap the attendance to 40 people per training session. The team leaders didn’t quite manage to do that – my largest class was over 110 participants.

I taught MoneyMinded to 565 people in total, across three weeks. Participants ranged in age from 18-65 years.

I ran nine sessions. Some of them more truncated and others were a full day. The content was largely the same, but I adapted the courses a little to suit each audience.

One of the biggest challenges was making sure the content suited the specific audience.

I had a mix of participants who were fluent in English and those where I used a translator to assist. They ranged from high school students to the care-giving women, to the leadership team and teachers – all with varying levels of education, backgrounds and income.

One of my most powerful memories was seeing all the “light bulb moments” go off in the sessions. They really started to comprehend the content and improve their financial decision making.

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The lasting impact

After three weeks of delivering the program, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. One participant’s feedback made an impression: “we’ve done a lot of financial literacy training before and nothing has been as good or as exciting as this”, said the participant.

Many who attended the training (especially the teenagers) thought the content would be “super boring”. But in the end the consensus was: “it was the best training day ever.” The participants were energised and filled with hope for their future.

Recently, one participant messaged me and said “I just want to let you know we bought our second house. Our first house we’ll be turning into a kindergarten business. And this has all stemmed from your training.”

I was nervous heading into it, thinking, “will I hit the mark, will I be able to adjust to the cultural nuances?”

It was a beautiful experience and I’ve been invited back in this year – this time for four months to continue delivering the program and helping to improve financial literacy in schools.

I am grateful to have the opportunity and flexibility to go on these trips. It is important for organisations to allow employees to have experiences that align with their values. In my case of helping people and communities to thrive.

Kym Chapman is Associate Director at ANZ Institutional