Workshop “Financial literacy and family budget management”

Financial literacy training has been offered by Habitat Bulgaria since 2009. The first “Plan Your Future” training module is developed by Microfinance Center (MFC), with the module providing a 20-hour training program in a two-day training seminar. In 2009, seven trainings were held in this format in five locations with 82 trained – clients of the joint program of Habitat Bulgaria and Microfund AD – Housing Improvement Lending.

In connection with the start-up activities of Habitat Bulgaria, related to microfinance of at-risk families and low-income families, a team of qualified trainers adapts and further elaborates the training module to best meet the needs and capabilities of the specific target group. The material is significantly simplified, new topics, practical exercises and new training materials are added, and in practice a completely different and new training module is created, which takes place within a day. From 2009 to 2015, the module is in the process of continuous development and improvement, and in 2015 a new workbook Financial Literacy and Family Budget Management was developed and printed.

The Financial Literacy and Family Budget Management training is aimed at people with low monthly income and aims to provide them with a basic knowledge of financial planning for the family budget. The trainings that the module contains are interactive and practice-based, so the material is understandable even for undergraduate students. It consists of two parts:

The first part of “Family Budget Management training”, by working in small groups on close-to-their-day cases, participants easily learn how to manage their income and plan their future expenses, how to reduce unnecessary costs, and how to set and achieve their financial purpose.

The second part of the training “Types of Financial Products” builds on the topics of the first part with topics related to savings management, prudent borrowing and management of loans from banking institutions, credit pricing, APR, insurance and more.

The training is aimed at current and potential clients under Habitat Bulgaria’s Housing Improvement Programs, together with their partners from local NGOs. In the period November 2009 – December 2020 the training module is presented in more than 20 settlements, 69 trainings with 1050 participants were conducted.

The Financial literacy training was supported by Citi Foundation, the Crisis Empowerment Program – Phase 1 and 2 of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe and the Open Society Institute, Tulip Foundation, as well as the VELUX Foundations.