CYFI was established on the 30th of June 2011/ . CYFI’s sister organization and Jeroo Billimoria’s previous endeavor, Aflatoun, has their own Economic Citizenship Education (ECE) curriculum which was being implemented by partners around the world. However, Jeroo found that although ECE is important, only a small number of children were being reached due to systemic limitations.
Therefore, CYFI was born out of recognition that reshaping financial systems is needed to support the global network in changing the lives of many more children and youth worldwide.
CYFI sees that that the key to fighting poverty is for people to learn how to manage and handle money, and have the confidence, knowledge and responsibility to spend and earn it responsibly. This must start from childhood.
So CYFI has partnered with thousands of organizations in over 150 countries around the world – from banks, to governments, to NGOs, to academics – you name it! Together, they work to create policies and programs that make children and youth able to learn about money, have access to a bank account, develop entrepreneurial skills and, most importantly, to believe in themselves.