To celebrate the 11th year anniversary of the Cha-Ching Financial Accreditation (CCFA) Conference and Awarding Ceremony, JA Philippines was able to virtually gather partners and educators from all over the country. Despite the limitations, Prudence Foundation, Pru Life UK, and Junior Achievement Philippines were still able to virtually celebrate all of Cha-Ching’s and the educators’ successes for the second year around, through a two-part Conference and Awarding Ceremony held last February 27-28, 2022. On this two-day virtual celebration, we were joined by a total of 50,000 Cha-Ching Advocates from all over the Philippines.

With the theme Cha-Ching For the Youth: Towards a Better Tomorrow, the first day of the event was dedicated to expanding knowledge and learnings through various keynote speakers on topics relating to financial literacy, while the second day, with the concept Cha-Ching Advocates: Game-Changers of Today, was focused on the recognition and awarding of all Cha-Ching stakeholders.

“The idea of earning money, having to save, having to have a budget, having expenses, [and] understanding what are expenses versus our savings – these are issues that affect all of us. By the age of seven (7), basic concepts related to financial behavior will have already been formulated or developed.“ said Mr. Marc Fancy, the Executive Director of Prudence Foundation.

Cha-Ching was innovated by Prudence Foundation, back in 2011, in order to become the medium in promoting and teaching people, especially the youth about the four money-smart concepts – Earn, Save, Spend and Donate. Likewise, JA Philippines, funded by Pru Life UK, served as an instrument in bringing the Cha-Ching Curriculum to the schools and having it integrated in the Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (Values Formation) subject of Grade 4 students, in coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), in order to gauge the effectiveness of Cha-Ching. Between the years 2016 to 2021, Cha-Ching was able to connect with a total number of 462,464 Filipino students. And in order to supplement the curriculum implementation and recognize the hardworking teachers behind this initiative, the Cha-Ching Financial Accreditation, an online assessment tool, was created. Additionally, just in 2021, Cha-Ching was able to garner 6,747 educators to teach the Cha-Ching Curriculum in participating schools in the Philippines, bringing the cumulative number to 11,910 teachers from 2016 to 2021.

“It is our fervent hope that the Financial Education Policy will usher greater momentum for Cha-Ching to bring smiles to more Filipino children and their families, and help them get the most out of life.” shared by Atty. Emeren Vallente, the Senior Vice President and Government Relations Officer of Pru Life UK, regarding the recently passed DepEd Order 022 Series of 2021 (Financial Education Policy) in the hopes that this can further help in Cha-Ching’s goal and be another stepping stone to further propagate financially literate Filipinos youths in the K to 12 level.

Cha-Ching has been one of the building blocks of financial literacy for many years now, and one of the components that has been keeping this program running are the Cha-Ching educators. This year, all educators have been lovingly referred to as Cha-Ching Advocates all throughout the program — as allies in promoting the curriculum and financial literacy and the Cha-Ching curriculum. To commemorate all small and big successes, JA Philippines has acknowledged the Cha-Ching Advocates through a series of educational and institutional awards to open a new year with Cha-Ching.

Joined and witnessed by various executives and members from DepEd agencies, Prudence Foundation, Pru Life UK, JA Asia Pacific and the Executive Director of JA Philippines, Mr. Krishna C. Alejandrino, around 2,400 Cha-Ching Advocates, hailing from Negros Occidental and Bicol region, were recognized as registered and passeres of the CCFA exam for Academic Year 2021-2022. Out of the 2,400 passers for this academic year, 42 of them were able to receive full marks on the exam and were hailed as the Top-Notchers of their batch. The newly acquired DepEd partners from Cabanatuan, Muntinlupa City, Laog and General Trias Cavite were also acknowledged and introduced through this event.

As the highlight of the celebration, various top and special awards were handed over to Cha-Ching Advocates and institutions who have shown exemplary commitment, dedication and brilliance in teaching Filipino youths the value of financial literacy.

The “Outstanding Cha-Ching Educator of the Year” Award recognizes the Cha-Ching Advocate who has showcased remarkable effort and unwavering dedication in teaching and spreading financial literacy to their students, and is considered as the prime example of what a CCFA-accredited educator should be. This prestigious title was awarded to Mr Gerald Frias from Camarines Sur, Bicol Region.

The “Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Leader” award recognizes the esteemed Cha-Ching Advocate who has supported CCFA initiatives of the best performing partner divisions and districts, and helped and has been leading the expansion of the implementation of the Cha-Ching Curriculum in various divisions from Negros Occidental, Bicol, Palawan and other areas in the country. The proud recipient of this award was Mr. Gilbert Sadsad, the Regional Director of the Department of Education (DepEd) – Bicol Region.

Other minor awards presented during the Cha-Ching Financial Accreditation (CCFA) awarding ceremony were as follows:

● Accelerator Award – the recipient of this award is the person who has exhibited great developments and innovation in teaching the Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Program and has shown great efforts to genuinely support the Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Program. This award was received by Ms. Marsette Sabalucca from Negros Occidental.

● Bling Award – recognizes the school through the selection criteria of the best implementation of Earn, Save, Spend or Donate (ESSD) school activities that generate the highest result and impact to students and community. Winners of this award underwent different training and additional programs of Earn, Save, Spend, and Donate, and were taken home by the Manito Central School from Albay, Bicol Region.

● Cluster Head of the Year – given Ms. Vicky P. Sugino from Negros Occidental for being the DepEd Cluster Head who has been outstandingly active in participating and implementing various activities that promote the Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Program in his/her respective cluster.

● Division Coordinator of the Year – handed to Ms. Annabelle Acta Alipo-on from Negros Occidental and Ms. Marilyn S. Gomez from Camarines Sur, Bicol Region for being the DepEd Division Coordinator who initiated innovations that have brought significant impact to the Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Program in his/her respective division.

Furthermore, it has also been announced through this event that the CCFA Exam Top-notechers will be given the chance to attend the first ever and exclusive Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Conference, organized by JA Asia Pacific, this upcoming February 18-19, 2022!

Going forward, Cha-Ching will only continue in its drive to foster financially literate youths, alongside our Cha-Ching Advocates, through ceaseless improvements and innovations, and reaching much more than the 170,000 student beneficiaries of Cha-Ching in 2021.

“We at JA are in the business of empowering young people and what better way to do this than recognizing outstanding teachers, outstanding teaching. [And] you’ve really distinguished yourselves in such a noble pursuit, and I want you to know how real our appreciation is. The CCFA program has been developed to really inspire excellence and to recognize these special educators that have made such a strong positive impact on financial literacy.“ said by the President and CEO of JA Asia Pacific, Mr. Maziar Sabet.

If you are interested to witness this year’s CCFA, you can watch the replay of the two-day celebration through these links:

• Day 1 Conference – https://tinyurl.com/CCFA2022Conference

• Day 2 Awarding Ceremony – https://tinyurl.com/CCFA2022AwardingCeremony

About Pru Life UK

Established in 1996, Pru Life UK is the pioneer of insuravest, or investment-linked life insurance products, in the Philippines and is one of the first life insurance companies approved to distribute US dollar-denominated investment-linked life insurance policies in the country. Since its establishment, Pru Life UK has expanded its reach to over 190 branches in the Philippines, with the biggest life agency force of about 32,000 licensed agents.

The company ranked first (1st) among the country’s life insurers based on the Insurance Commission’s Q2 2020 rankings in terms of new business annual premium equivalent. Pru Life UK is headquartered in Uptown Bonifacio, Taguig City.

Pru Life UK and Prudential plc are not affiliated with Prudential Financial, Inc. of the United States, Prudential Assurance Company (a subsidiary of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom), Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Company, Prudentialife Plans, Inc. or Prudential Guarantee and Assurance, Inc. (all Philippine-registered companies). Pru Life UK is a life insurance company and is not engaged in the business of selling pre-need plans.

For more information: www.prulifeuk.com.ph

About Prudence Foundation

Prudence Foundation is the community investment arm of Prudential in Asia and Africa*. Its mission is to secure the future of communities by enhancing education, health, and safety. The Foundation runs regional programs as well as local programs in partnership with NGOs, governments and the private sector in order to maximize the impact of its efforts. Prudence Foundation leverages Prudential’s longterm mindset and geographical scale to make communities safer, more secure and more resilient. The Foundation is a Hong Kong-registered charitable entity.

For more information please visit: www.prudencefoundation.com

*Prudential Corporation Asia is a business unit of Prudential plc of the United Kingdom. Neither Prudential Corporation Asia nor Prudential plc are affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc., a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America. In Taiwan and Korea, Prudential Corporation Asia trades under the PCA name for its insurance business. Its asset management business in Asia operates under the name Eastspring Investments.

About JA Philippines

Junior Achievement of the Philippines Incorporated is a non-stock, non-profit organization which serves as administrator of the Junior Achievement program in the country. It was organized on January 13, 1969 with the purpose of uplifting the education of young Filipinos by building on the outstanding success of Junior Achievement Inc. JA is transforming the student experience by bringing relevance, authenticity and application into everyday learning to energize students around academics and their future possibilities. Through integrated learning models focused on career readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, JA empowers the next generation with the knowledge, capacity and motivation to thrive; to build a better future for themselves and their community.

About Cha-Ching TM Money Smart Kids

Cha-Ching is an initiative of the Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of Prudential in Asia and Africa. Created in partnership with the Cartoon Network, the leading children’s channel in Asia Pacific, and with Dr. Alice Wilder, an expert in educational and child psychology, Cha-Ching takes an engaging and age-appropriate musical narrative approach to teach children about four key fundamental money management concepts – Earn, Save, Spend and Donate.

Cha-Ching is currently available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese, Khmer and Burmese.

Cha-Ching is a series of three-minute animated television music videos for children aged 7 to 12 that were produced by and aired on Cartoon Network channels. Other elements of the programme include a website (www.cha-ching.com) with games and applications featuring real-life money management scenarios, online resources and activity plans for kids, parents and teachers. The Cha-Ching Curriculum with structured lessons plan for teachers was launched in 2016, and has reached more than 600,000 students across Asia to date.