FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

North Carolina Publisher Teams with Johannesburg School
to Bring Financial Literacy to South African Kids and Teens

Chapel Hill, NC and Johannesburg SA; January 2006: Talk about your global economy!  In December 2005, Maureen Dolan Rosen, publisher of a line of cash management workbooks for kids, teens and adults, traveled to South Africa to work with Charly and Nadege Luntadila, founders of a new school of financial literacy, the Youth Money Wise Centre.  (Rosen is pictured here in front of the school with the Luntadilas.) YMWC is the first school of its kind in Africa, teaching kids and teens (and eventually adults) basic money management skills. The school is the culmination of a dream of the Luntadilas, who have long wanted to establish a way to address the lack of basic financial skills among many of South Africa’s people, and especially among its youth.  The school will launch its first classes for kids and teens in January 2006, and will cover a broad range of financial topics, including basic budgeting, South African and global economics, identity theft, banking and how to avoid credit card debt. The school will begin with classes for kids age 8-12, and teens age 13-17, with additional classes staritng later in 2006  for college students, adults, newly-married couples and senior citizens.

The Luntadilas found Rosen online at her website The Cash Management Connection, where she sells cash management workbooks for all ages. This is the first foray into global business for Rosen, who has now licensed the YMWC to produce her KIDSCA$H™ and MYCA$H™ workbooks in South Africa under their own label.  “Shipping to South Africa was just too expensive,” says Rosen. “We finally hit on the idea of licensing them to produce our workbooks there as a way to bypass that cost.”  It’s a business model that Rosen hopes to replicate later next year in South America with the Spanish workbooks her company publishes.

Working together for two intense weeks, Rosen and the Luntadilas put finishing touches on a 24- part curriculum that teaches basic financial skills, and prepares students to be financially responsible. They set in place the bones of a marketing infrastructure that the Luntadilas are busy implementing in South Africa.  Rosen and her new partners keep in close touch via emails and phone calls, and keep each other up to date on what’s been accomplished.  And they’ve merged two business cultures into a program that will eventually spread to all of Africa.   “It was, without a doubt, the coolest business experience I’ve ever had,” says Rosen. “It’s so rare that small companies have the opportunity to do something international. That’s usually the domain of the IBMS and Exxons.  I think I’m the luckiest person in the world to have had this chance.  And doubly lucky to have teamed up with such amazing people as Charly and Nadege, and to now have them as business partners.”  See more about these two global business partners at their websites:

Cash Management Connection: www.cashworkbooks.com
Youth MoneyWise Centre: www.youthmoneywise.com