ChildLine/ChildFinance: Jeroo Billimoria at TEDxHamburg

Would you be willing to fund a project where children staff a helpline for children? How many NGOs do you think supported Jeroo Billimoria with her project to teach children to save money and become empowered? The success of her projects show what type of projects can grow if you invest in enthusiasm, creativity and most of all: children.

Hello, good afternoon.

As he said, my name is Jeroo Billimoria

and what I like doing is
starting organizations

because I think everyone of us can
do something to change the world.

So, here you see two things:

Child Helpline International
and Aflatoun.

I've started six organizations,

so I'll share with you
a bit of my journey

and ask you all some questions
on the way, if that's okay.

I started very young, actually,
I started when I was sixteen,

and that's when I argued with my mom
and started my first organization.

You know, we all do that
as adolescents, right?

And that was basically
to teach math skills to students

so that they would not fail in school.

And that was where it started.

Then of course I went abroad,
studied, the whole gamut,

and was working
with street children in India.

They said that they wanted somewhere
where they could call up 24 hours a day,

not between the convenient times
of our social workers,

because they said,
"You all make money,

you make it at our expense, but
you're never there when we need you."

That was basically what they said.

So they said, "Have a service!"

When we first went there,

and I approached the Telecom
authorities and other people,

they said,
"A phone service with street children?

And who will run it?
You mean professional people?"

I said,
"No, the kids themselves will run it."

And they thought I was crazy.

So they refused and we didn't get
a toll free number from the government.

So we tried again, and this time
we said, "Let's be smart."

I was teaching at Tata Institute,

but there were no student researchers
who wanted to work,

so we got a bunch of street kids together
and they did the first ever research study

on why they as street kids wanted to have
a phone service for street children.

So we took this research study
and then we went and presented it

to the Deputy Director General
of the Telecom,

we got the toll free number
and today, in a way, this is history.

CHILDLINE India is a project
of the government of India,

it is part of the child protection system,

we received two million phone calls
from children,

are spread in 80 districts
across the country,

and based on the calls
which came from CHILDLINE India,

we now have a government policy

where the government
was forced to acknowledge

the amount of demand there was
for protection services

and from a budget of one crore,
that's around 250,000,

they now give 100 crore
integrated child protection scheme

linked to the policy.

So that's what happened
and it only happened

because a bunch of kids had enough guts
and were willing to follow and do stuff.

From CHILDLINE India,
which is still where my heart lies,

we moved into
Child Helpline International,

so that's what you see over there.

Many countries started asking us
about helplines for children by children.

Germany has a very established helpline,
which has been there for almost 25 years.

Which is from --
all of you know.

But there are no helplines
in economically developing countries

because everyone said telecoms cannot work
for economically developing countries,

even though CHILDLINE India
had proved otherwise.

So we said, okay, let's take up
the challenge globally, and we did.

Today, we are Child Helpline International,
it's in 150 countries.

We have live helplines
in more than 110 countries

and respond to between 14-18 million
calls and contacts annually

and have helped on an annual basis
more than a million children

who were being abused
from different sorts of abuses.

So basically if you will look at this story,
I think the important thing is that

anyone of you can have an idea and then,

if you just follow your heart
and your dream, and ...

It's easy!
(Laughter)

Just ... go ahead
and just do it, you know?

And you'll be able
to work with a lot of people,

So -- looking at that.

But after taking Child Helpline global

and today, since its inception, we have
responded to more than 55 million calls,

that's more than
half a billion phone calls,

and helped millions
and millions of children.

But I can tell you myself,

I don't mean to be complacent,
what is the cause of the problems?

Why do the children run away,
why is there abuse in the homes?

What is happening?

Even with the economic crisis,

everyone's talked about
the millions that have been lost,

the billions of bailouts,
rescue packages, the whole gamut.

But the truth is that the child,
who is most affected,

nobody has ever talked about that.

Through the crisis,
more children have been abused at home,

more children have been
forced to drop out,

more children are not able
to meet their basic school fees,

and malnourishment
in families has increased.

So this is something that is happening
where macroeconomics affects children.

So the question, not just with the crisis,
but even when I spoke to street children,

why did they run away from home,

is because they saw
no opportunities at home.

So then the question was,

how can you work to create a society
where every child really feels empowered?

And then the question I posed, and
I think actually some of my kids said,

is what you really need to know is
know about money, know how to use it.

And here I'm going to take
a one second break and ask you all:

How many of you started saving
when you were children?

Just raise your hands.

Most of you.

How many of you who have kids
do teach your children to save?

Or your cousins, or ...?

Those who have kids,
you teach your kids to save.

What happens in a family
which has never learned to save?

Do they ever manage?

Be it in Germany, be it in the US,
be it in rural India?

What happens? There is nobody
who can teach children about saving.

Teach them about investments, teach them
about believing and having a choice.

And that is what Aflatoun does.

Aflatoun teaches children
to believe in themselves.

I can go on and on about Aflatoun,

but here I'm going
to take a two minute pause

and ask them to show you a film
which was made by Aflatoun

with our kids in parallel.

So I'll step aside
so you can see the Aflatoun film

which brings the spirit of what Aflatoun is.

(Video)

(Music)

♪ I am Aflatoun ♪

♪ I'm a fireball ♪

♪ I come from outer space ♪

♪ From far away I come ♪

♪ I am Aflatoun ♪

♪ I like playing games ♪

♪ I live inside a child ♪

♪ And give her strength, I do ♪

♪ I like teaching your children
about their rights ♪

♪ I teach them saving and spending
and enterprise ♪

♪ They discover their powers,
that's what I'm all about ♪

♪ Separate fiction from fact ♪

♪ Explore, think, investigate and act. ♪

♪ Make a change around the world ♪

♪ It's our choice
as an Aflatoun boy and girl ♪

♪ I'm aware of what my rights are ♪

♪ and how this can bring me so far ♪

♪ But I know what my duties are too ♪

♪ I'm an empowered child! ♪

♪ I am Aflatoun ♪

♪ I know who I am ♪

♪ The flame that burns so bright,
burns in me too, it does. ♪

♪ I am Aflatoun ♪

♪ I save coins and things ♪

♪ Things that are valuable
are safe with me, they are. ♪

♪ Aflatoun helped show me
how to plan my stuff ♪

♪ So when it comes to resources,
I'll have enough ♪

♪ I'm tremendously happy,
it's in my neighborhood. ♪

♪ Separate fiction from fact ♪

♪ Explore, think, investigate and act. ♪

♪ Make a change around the world ♪

♪ It's our choice
as an Aflatoun boy and girl ♪

♪ I'm aware of what my rights are
and how this can bring me so far ♪

♪ But I know my duties well too ♪

♪ I'm an empowered child! ♪

♪ Separate fiction from fact ♪

♪ Explore, think, investigate and act ♪

♪ Make a change around the world ♪

♪ It's our choice
as an Aflatoun boy and girl ♪

♪ I'm aware of what my rights are
and how this can bring me so far ♪

♪ But I know my duties well too ♪

♪ I'm an empowered child! ♪

JB: Now, I was a school teacher,
or at university, I still ask:

What was there in the film?

What were the messages
we were communicating?

I have seven minutes, so I can ask.
(Laughter)

Any idea?

What was the main message that Aflatoun,
according to the film, communicates?

Woman: I'm an empowered child.

JB: Yeah! You're an empowered child.

Yeah. Anyone else? ... No?

Man: Learning can be fun.

JB: Learning can be fun!

Someone else?

Man: Saving money.

JB: Saving money! Yeah!

That's one of the main things
Aflatoun teaches,

it teaches you to believe in yourself,

it teaches you to save your money,

resources, water, electricity,
everything,

and it teaches you to be entrepreneurial,
so you can go and follow your dream.

That's what it teaches.

Aflatoun is the fireball which unites

approximately 800,000 children
in 40 countries across the world.

When we started with Aflatoun,
everyone said,

"We are not funding this. Teaching
children to save money is bad."

I'm not joking! Honestly.
And I said,

"But don't you teach your own children?"

Yes, but teaching children
to save money is bad.

No NGO was willing to collaborate
and no donor was willing to fund us.

So for the first four years actually,
my husband and myself said,

"Ok, we'll fund it to whatever extent
of money we have."

We aren't rich, but we said,
"Let's just do it."

And then we built it. In 2008,
we launched the campaign,

and just least year we had around
560,000 children saving.

And I have a question to all of you:

How much do you think, last year,
560,000 children saved?

Most of these children are from
less than a dollar a day families.

Take your guess!
How much do you think they saved?

Collectively. Remember, there's
less than a dollar a day families.

Man: One million!

JB: Go higher! You're right!
2.6 million! That's what they saved!

Can you imagine?
2.6 million is what the children saved.

And they started
five thousand enterprises.

Enterprises to start livestock,

so a child saved, bought a chicken, why?

So that he or she could then
have money to go to school,

because they saved the money,
have the chicken, get eggs,

make a revenue, and can eat.

Some school children took gunny sacks and
planted potatoes in their school playground!

Yet others took waste and
made bags from them.

Yet others decided that there was
enough space to do rice,

so they planted rice fields in that small
patch, and that became part of the thing.

Others opened school canteens
and a zillion more things.

So, all I'm trying to say is that
if we are able to teach children,

they have the power and the ability
to be the agents of change.

And that is what Aflatoun is about.

So that is what we do,
that is what we believe in,

that is what we take forward.

Nine out of ten times,
when we start something,

nobody is willing to believe in us.

And I can go on and on about
how many people say no,

but there are some people
who are willing to invest in us.

And I think those are actually
the more courageous people

than people like me
who want to start things.

I think Bart sitting there will agree.

Because you start, fine,

but it's the investors who say, "Hey,
we believe in you, we take it forward."

And that means everyone of you
who is sitting here in this room

has the ability to be an investor
and to be the change,

to be the movement which we need,

so that our children
don't have a financial crisis,

so that our children can see a future

and, like this film said,
be empowered children and citizens.

And the change is not with me,
it's with you.

So I hope we can do it.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)