Candy (centre) and Crystal (right) with their mother.
KOTA KINABALU: The AEIOU Challenge, a competition organised by Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad that seeks to promote financial literacy among schoolchildren from Standard 4 to 6 have left a tremendous impact on Candy and Crystal Voo.
The two sisters who came from SJKC Yick Nam have both enjoyed great success in the competition; Candy won the first-ever AEIOU Challenge back in 2015 and finished second the following year while Crystal finished third in this year’s edition of the annual competition.
Established in 2015, the AEIOU Challenge is the Bank’s corporate responsibility initiative comprising the financial literacy education, Comic Challenge and e-Game Challenge.
Candy, 15, who is now in secondary school said that the lessons she learned in the competition have taught her a lot about the importance of financial savings.
Impressively, she now runs a small part-time business where she would conduct drawing classes for her peers.
“I have started saving some of my money so that I can one day use it for university education,” Candy told The Borneo Post in an exclusive interview yesterday.
One of the things that had motivated her to gain success in the competition was the fact that she wanted to bring her family to Kuala Lumpur, as the final stage for the competition would be held there.
Candy said that she had a great time at the event and she even managed to make new friends.
To win the Comic Challenge was not an easy task, as one has to compete with thousands of schoolchildren from across the nation.
For this year alone, the Comic Challenge had over 21,000 entries. From this number, the organisers then shortlisted 20 finalists who would then battle it out at the grand finals.
Crystal had finished third in the competition, an achievement that is considered amazing, as she had to outclass thousands of other contestants.
Although she is just 11, she could already understand the importance of caring for the less fortunate.
“I want to save money so that I can help the elders living in the old folks home,” said Crystal.
This year, Alliance Bank had also introduced a brand new category dubbed as the AEIOU Financial e-Game Challenge (e-Game Challenge).
Over 11,000 participants took part in the category.
In this regard, Alliance Bank decided to retain the e-Game Challenge online, alongside other learning materials related to AEIOU Challenge, even after the programme has ended for this season.
The AEIOU Challenge, which has just concluded its fifth season, had also witnessed an expansion in its Train-the-Trainers session as over 420 schools had participated in it.
During the sessions, the teachers were trained in financial literacy education, and provided financial education materials to enable them to conduct the lessons at their respective schools and continue to champion financial literacy even after the AEIOU Challenge ended.
Based on the theme ‘How smart spending habits help my family build our future’, this year’s AEIOU Challenge received over a total of 32,000 participations, which is more than double last year’s 15,000 submissions.
Alliance Bank’s AEIOU Challenge supports the aspiration of the nation of having financially savvy citizens by enhancing the knowledge of Malaysians on good financial management.
Aligned with the recently announced National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023, the programme champions its strategic priority of instilling right values from young and inculcating positive financial management skills.
The Bank has also been actively working with the Ministry of Education in the carrying out of the competition.
It seeks to see more participation nationwide in the future.