Press Room
		Citi Provides a $45,000 grant to The Citizen’s Foundation for the Young Investor’s Initiative

November 4, 2009

Karachi: Citi provided a US$45,000 grant to The Citizens Foundation (TCF) as part of the ‘Citi Young Investor’s Initiative’ over 2008-09. This money management project sought to implement a financial education program for over 600 graduating students from TCF secondary schools in Pakistan, through a series of competitive day long seminars, on subjects ranging from cash flows to business cycles to the why’s and how’s of banking and the importance of saving. A comprehensive 6-day training was organized for TCF trainers by ECI (Pvt) Ltd, who also developed teachers and students’ modules. These trainers then proceeded to roll out the program to TCF students in 20 TCF schools across Karachi.

TCF is a leading non-profit organization working to provide quality formal education to the less-privileged children of Pakistan. Set up in 1995 in Karachi with 5 schools in the following year (1996), TCF now has 600 purpose-built Primary and Secondary School units in urban slums and rural areas all over Pakistan, with an enrolment of 80,000 students. The vision of TCF is to remove barriers of class and privilege and to make the citizens of Pakistan ‘Agents of Positive Change’, for it believes that access to basic education is the right of each individual and not a privilege.

The concluding ceremony for this program took place on Friday - August 21, 2009 at TCF School – Mauripur Campus. The event was well represented by both Citi and TCF’s senior management including Citi’s CCO & MD Arif Usmani and Founding Member of TCF Mr Mushtaq Chhapra. TCF students displayed/presented their money management projects at this ceremony, ranging from innovative business ideas of starting a net café to setting up a tailoring unit and a cycle rent shop.

The project incentivized financial awareness skills by awarding the winning TCF school Rs. 1.9 million as prize money from the grant, for the maintenance of their school over the next two years. A judging panel featuring experts from the Microfinance world and TCF’s Education team was also invited to evaluate the projects and TCF Secondary School in Jam Kando Goth was declared the winner., This campus was established in 2003 and currently has an enrollment of 208 students, of which over 50% are female students. Thirty three tenth-graders from the school participated in the Citi Money Management Program and the school was represented by a group of 6 students for this Citi sponsored project. The students proposed the establishment of a retail business where accessories crafted from leaves of date-palm plants will be sold. The presentation of the students was supplemented by a display of intricately-crafted accessories including bracelets, rings, key chains, handbags and cell phone carriers. The panel of judges was particularly impressed by the originality of the idea and the utilization of a nearly zero-cost and readily available raw material, allowing the students and their trainer Ms. Fouzia Naseem to win PKR 1.9 million for the Operational support of their campus.

Speaking at the occasion, Citi’s CCO& MD Arif Usmani said, ‘Citi has enjoyed a longstanding collaboration with TCF; it is one of the most effective Non Profit Organizations operating in the country today. Moreover, financial education is a key priority for the Citi Foundation and we hope our Young Investor’s Initiative has made a small contribution in equipping TCF students with practical, real world skills, preparing them to face economic challenges in the modern world.’

‘Citi has been a key corporate partner with TCF over several years; their support towards our educational efforts has been consistent and we look forward to further bolstering this relationship going forward, to help alleviate illiteracy in Pakistan’ said Mr Chhapra.

Citi’s main community objectives revolve around microfinance, financial education and environmental projects. This year Citi has committed over US$300,000 towards community related projects in Pakistan. It is in liaison with various local charities to celebrate Diversity Week and Global Community Day later this year.

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