A pioneering Peruvian bank is teaching poor children how to save and make money by recycling. Astonishingly this bank was developed for children by 14-year old José Adolfo Quisocala - seven years ago.

At the age of 7, José decided he wanted to create a bank for children, motivated by the poverty he witnessed amongst children who were unable to attend his primary school.

“Seeing children living in poverty, seeing many children working in the streets, at the traffic lights selling sweets, begging … made me think, why can’t these children go to a normal school,”

“One of the reasons why those kids were working was because there was no money at home. Why can’t I teach them to save?” he said.

Seven years ago, he persuaded a group of teachers and pupils that his idea could work, a student prize from the local town hall assisted him in receiving the support of a local cooperative, this allowed José to formally register his bank.

He founded the Bartselana student bank which now has over 2,000 clients from the ages of 10 to 18. The bank offers loans, micro-insurance and other financial services. The bank provides personal bank cards, allowing children to withdraw money from the cash points of several banks and building societies. Account-holders can view and monitor their balances online, José also introduced savings goals for his clients to meet to allow them to withdraw funds. The bank began to grow when José introduced an inventive way for the children to earn money through recycling.

“The children would sometimes bring savings of a few cents and I had promised that they could buy a bicycle, a computer or a laptop but with that amount of money it would take a long time,” he says. “I thought there must be a way they can earn money and I thought about rubbish; we all generate rubbish and I decided that was the solution.”

The children take plastic bottles, used school exercise books and old newspapers to a kiosk at their school, it is then weighed, and their bank accounts are credited with the corresponding amount of money. José shrewdly encouraged local recycling companies to get involved, he made deals with them to pay his bank’s clients a slightly higher rate than normal; eg 0.80 Peruvian Soles (0.19 GBP) a kilogram of plastic or white paper. José explained “We don’t want them to be in the street collecting rubbish but at home stopping the rubbish from reaching the street. So in their homes, they put out boxes for cardboard, paper, bottles – they start collecting and it becomes valuable,”

The bank recycles around 4 tonnes of material a month, it has kiosks in seven schools in Arequipa; with more to come.

Peru’s Environment minister, Lucía Ruiz praised José’s efforts and said “He’s making an incredible change in financial structuring and financial education that perhaps many adults could not have come up with,”

"By joining that with recycling and the handling of waste, a serious problem in our country, he’s scoring a double goal because he’s not just designing a financial opportunity for children and teenagers but also helping to reduce the amount of waste in the country.”

Peru has chosen domestic recycling as one of its main campaigns, the nation introduced a new law to tackle its estimated 18,000 tonnes of solid waste a day, half of which ends up on streets, beaches and rivers.

José has won awards both nationally and internationally for his innovative business model combining financial and environmental services, he won Unicef’s Child and Youth Finance International Award in 2014 and the Children’s Climate Prize in 2018.

When explaining his career choice, José explained “It’s a very hectic life for a 14-year-old,”

“Even so, I’m passionate about what I do and I always tell people they should do what they like rather than what others believe they should do.”