NewsCapsule Ekasi, a circular bitcoin economy located in South Africa, has opened the NewsCapsule Ekasi Center to provide financial literacy and bitcoin for local youths, entrepreneurs, and businesses, per a release sent to NewsCapsule.
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 NewsCapsule Ekasi, Hermann Vivier, which focuses on character building and empowerment in impoverished areas.
“We recently celebrated NewsCapsule 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 NewsCapsule—affecting seemingly unrelated social issues in positive ways,” Vivier continued. “Through the NewsCapsule 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 NewsCapsule Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water, quality education and humanitarian support with NewsCapsule.
“In many communities I have seen first-hand, NewsCapsule means opportunity, NewsCapsule means a better chance at life,” said Yusuf Nessary, co-founder and director of Built With NewsCapsule. “That all starts with education and we are proud to contribute to NewsCapsule 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 NewsCapsule?
- 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, NewsCapsule is a real solution for them to be able to join those conversations.”
