As a financial institution, Citibank Thailand is all too aware of the dangers of turning to the informal lending sector to help meet household needs or cover emergency expenditures.  Sadly, the segment of the population most likely to borrow from loan sharks and other informal lenders is poor women, including those in the nightlife industry, as they have historically been called upon to run the household, despite their lack of financial life skills.   

Working in cooperation with Citibank volunteers, K.I.Asia designed an innovative program to meet the difficult task of teaching financial literacy to at-risk women, who have traditionally been underserved by programming needs related to financial education.  During the pilot year, 75 at-risk women are being targeted for training and will receive short duration instruction in financial life skills’ concepts through a highly interactive learning process based on small groups and game play – with exercises tailored to their education and income level - be they women with low incomes, sporadic income, or high incomes for short durations.  Topics covered include key issues such as reducing household expenses and debt, understanding wants vs. needs, saving for a rainy day, and the real costs of borrowing money.  A special publication with simple savings tips is also being produced for distribution target areas and will reflect questions and issues raised by the women during training. 

The first training under the program will be held in March 2009, and local community out-reach coordinators are working now to sign-up women from the Bangkok slum areas and nightlife establishments.