Bitcoin Ekasi, a circular bitcoin economy located in South Africa, has opened the Bitcoin Ekasi Center to provide financial literacy and bitcoin for local youths, entrepreneurs, and businesses, per a release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
Ekasi has already onboarded 10 local businesses to bitcoin in the area. The education center has signed on around 20 youths already in just one week and has a goal of doubling its attendance in the near future. Additionally, during the mornings, the center is open to the entire community Tuesday – Friday, and all day Saturday.
The youth attending the center’s educational program will also spend time with the Surfer Kids, another non-profit started by the same founder of Bitcoin Ekasi, Hermann Vivier, which focuses on character building and empowerment in impoverished areas.
“We recently celebrated Bitcoin Ekasi’s first anniversary and it’s a surreal feeling to officially open the center,” said Vivier.
“In that time, I have witnessed financial empowerment through Bitcoin–affecting seemingly unrelated social issues in positive ways,” Vivier continued. “Through the Bitcoin Ekasi Center, I am honored that our team will be able to grow this movement and inspire other communities to think differently about money.”
The Ekasi center is backed by leading fintech Paxful and the Built With Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water, quality education and humanitarian support with Bitcoin.
“In many communities I have seen first-hand, Bitcoin means opportunity, Bitcoin means a better chance at life,” said Yusuf Nessary, co-founder and director of Built With Bitcoin. “That all starts with education and we are proud to contribute to Bitcoin Ekasi’s efforts to empower a local community to take the reins on their financial future.”
The curriculum is age-based. Thus, younger attendants will focus more on foundational mathematics and English skills, while the older groups will center on three specific questions:
What is Bitcoin? How does it work? Why is it important?
“Our society is based around money: who has it, how to get it, ways to grow it, what to do with it,” said Ray Youssef, founder and CEO of Paxful. “For the millions of people who are unable to access banks and credit, Bitcoin is a real solution for them to be able to join those conversations.”