Financial Education Course for indigenous immigrants and refugees

Having a status of refugee, is it possible to open a bank account? What documents are necessary? How does one send money abroad? How does one plan for expenses?

For those who have come from another country and are rebuilding their life in the host country, there are innumerable questions.

The Indigenous Cultural and Training Center (ICTC), managed by the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF), headquartered in Boa Vista – RR, realized the need for this training and opened its doors to the National Committee for Refugees (Conare), an organism connected with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, to provide a course on Financial Education intended for the Venezuelan indigenous people of the Warao and Pemon tribes; of the Guyanese, the Akawaio; and of the Brazilian, the Macuxi and Wapichana.

According to the humanitarian aid volunteer of the Humanitarian Fraternity (FIHF), Ricardo Baumgartner, “the training had a very broad level of clarification. Very relevant for those who are opening a bank account, have their own money, or are opening a business, and it also had the support of the UN Agency for Migration (OIM),” he tells us.

Done on July 7, the course consisted of a theoretical module and a practical module with a workshop on household budgeting (case study). 40 people participated in the training.

The theoretical module addressed two topics: management of personal finances with basic ideas such as what money is and its significance; save by buying X, invest by buying X, credit modalities that generate interest charges, among other matters.

As to the topic of the national financial system, the following topics were addressed:  opening a bank account, paying via pix (PagaBrazil Pix), sending money abroad, kinds of credit operations, among other matters. Another important subject highlighted was alert against fraud, how to avoid scams and about the consumer complaint channels.

For the Taurepang man, Ricardo Rodrigues, a member of the Association of Indigenous Immigrants of Roraima (AMIR), the course will guide his financial life from now on. He comments: “The course was very important; I learned a lot of things. To summarize, it was very useful; I really enjoyed it as an individual and as a member of the Association. We were given ideas on how to save a few cents. We learned to set goals, to save so as to, for example, buy a house, buy a car. It helped us to organize our expenses.”