CASABLANCA, Morocco--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant, Wikipedia Founder and Wikia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales, and Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) CEO Karim Hajji, along with Ambassador Andrew Young launched the first international financial literacy empowerment tool, the Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative (Global Money), at an international press conference hosted at the CSE and presented live online on March 3, 2011.
“In Morocco, 50% percent of our citizens do not have bank accounts,” said Hajji. “That means that they are not building a future for themselves, partaking in the growing economy or financially planning for their futures. As our globe becomes more interconnected, Moroccans need to be given the tools to actively participate in the world economy. I believe financial literacy accomplishes just that and with this initiative, the CSE is leading the charge in North Africa”
Through the leadership and insight of Hajji and the CSE, executives there have taken HOPE’s Banking on Our Future financial literacy curriculum and translated it into French and Arabic and contextualized it for the local Moroccan population. CSE and HOPE have entered into a unique Country Partnership and agree to work together to inspire and recruit local volunteers to bring it to local communities. Their example will serve as a template for other community leaders to replicate the model in countries worldwide.
"The world is in the midst of a global economic crisis and Global Money is about moving forward in the only viable way possible, by offering a hand-up, not a hand out," said Bryant, who currently serves the Obama Administration on the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. "The unifying factor among all people is that we all want prosperity, to be treated with dignity, and the peace of mind knowing that future generations will have the same. The only way to ensure this is for individuals to be educated and empowered, taking their prosperity into their own hands by learning the language of money."
Continuing, Civil Rights Icon and HOPE Global Ambassador Young said, “Providing people with equality as citizens was the first step of the Civil Rights Movement. Giving people both the opportunity and the ability to fairly and equally use our financial system is the next. Not being able to understand and utilize our financial system is, I believe a sophisticated form of slavery.”
Before an international audience and presented live via internet, Global Money was launched to the public-at-large and is now available to communities in several languages across the globe via Wikia’s internet platform. Global Money is based on HOPE’s award-winning financial literacy curriculum Banking on Our Future. The English language program is taught in five learning modules: A Course in Dignity (The Real Wealth), the Basics of Banking, Checking and Savings Accounts, Credit and Investments.
“The Internet and social media are becoming massive catalysts of change around the world,” said Wales. “At Wikia, we want to embrace the ideas that can help transform people’s lives and bring it to them in a free, interactive way so that all people can benefit.”
Global Money’s partnership with Wikia, allows the curriculum to be available and in a format that can be translated globally through Wikia’s online collaborative publishing platform. Free to the public and made available online and on a non-commercial basis through a "commons" license, Global Money expects to be made available in the next 18 months in the world’s top 50 languages.
About Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative (Global Money)
A collaborative partnership bringing together programming from the international economic empowerment nonprofit and utilizing Wikia’s online collaborative publishing platform, the Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative allows Country Partners to translate and adapt HOPE’s English language financial literacy curriculum. By engaging Country Partners throughout the world, Global Money tasks them with the responsibility of translating and contextualizing the English version of the Banking on Our Future curriculum into their country’s local language, while infusing local culture and financial systems into the documents. These documents would then be uploaded and shared online at the HOPE Global Money Wikia site to the community at large. This allows community leaders (whether it be a parent, teacher, or advocate) to print and use these documents to teach and empower youth and adults with localized and relevant lessons about money.
About Operation HOPE, Inc.
Founded in 1992, the mission of social economic empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE (HOPE) is to expand economic opportunity in under-resourced communities through financial literacy education. HOPE promotes "silver rights" – making free enterprise and capitalism relevant and effective for the underserved. Serving more than 1.4 million people, raising more than $500 million and directing, funding and restructuring nearly $500 million more in mortgages and economic support from the private sector, for a total of approximately $1 billion dollars in economic activity, HOPE seeks dignity and empowerment for all. Follow Operation HOPE at www.operationhope.org, www.twitter.com/operationhope, and www.facebook.com/operationhope.
About Wikia
Wikia is the definitive place for people to collaboratively pursue their interests and share their knowledge on the web. Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject they love or participate in over 160,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With more than four million pages of rich content, Wikia’s communities are the most authoritative information about any topic on the Internet. Launched in 2004 by co-founders Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley, Wikia attracts more than 35 million global unique visitors per month and is a Top 100 Internet site according to Quantcast.
About Casablanca Stock Exchange
With its 80 years of experience, the Casablanca Stock Exchange is entrusted with organizing IPOs, managing trading via its modern trading system, and attracting investors to this burgeoning market. Through its good governance practices, its opening to the international market and by exporting its expertise, vision 2015 aims to double the number of listed companies, quadruple the number of investors and transform Morocco and its stock exchange into a major African Investment hub.
The Casablanca Stock Exchange has three equity markets, a bond and a fund market. It operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The Casablanca Stock Exchange is a Limited Company whose capital is equally held by member brokers, is the fourth member in Africa to be among the World Federation of Exchanges “WFE”, and active member of the African Securities Exchanges Association “ASEA”.