The first children’s financial play of its kind, “Money Carousel,” was staged on March 17 at the Slavyanska BesedaTheatre by students from Kozma Trichkov Secondary School in Vratsa. It was met with exceptional interest and many smiles from young audience members and their parents. They followed the story of little Ani, who gave up insisting that her father buy her a castle after learning about and discussing family expenses. They discovered how dreams come true and enjoyed two original songs created especially for the production by musician Sasho Alexandrov. And, of course, they gave enthusiastic applause to the wonderful young actors.

The play represents an innovative educational approach based on the concept of a “lesson-performance.” Through it, students step out of the role of passive participants in the learning process and become its driving force—as creators, musicians, and performers. In this way, through the creative process, they learn about money and the important things in life.

“Money Carousel” is part of the innovative financial literacy programs “About Money and Other Important Things” of the Financial Literacy Initiative Foundation, implemented with the support of NN Bulgaria.

Alongside financial knowledge, the programs also help develop a number of key skills. All of this reaches children in a way that resonates with them—through games, challenges, and theater—thus building sustainable knowledge and behavioral models. Over the past four years, more than 300 teachers from across the country have been trained through the programs with the support of NN Bulgaria, and the results and feedback have been more than positive. We believe that effective practices should be shared—this is the goal of the new website www.finansizadeca.bg.

“All of us understand that regardless of the path our children choose in life, they will need to be financially literate,” commented Rositsa Vartonik from the Financial Literacy Initiative Foundation. “The question is how to achieve this, especially considering that personal finance management is directly linked to established behavioral patterns. That’s why it’s important to start early and in an appropriate way. Our programs offer exactly that, and I believe this is how we can be useful to society and to our children.”

“Financial literacy is a key resource that enables people to significantly improve their economic opportunities. At NN, we believe that the process of building this essential skill should begin in early childhood and continue throughout life. This is why our company invests resources and efforts in a number of initiatives that help different age groups in Bulgaria learn more about effective personal finance management. We are pleased that, in our approach to the youngest audiences, together with our partners from the Financial Literacy Initiative Foundation, we have focused on modern and interactive methods such as children’s workshops. We believe that by creating the resource website www.finansizadeca.bg, we will make this valuable information accessible to more people,” shared Anna Yonkovа, Head of Marketing, Training, and Customer Service at NN Bulgaria.