Coming off their Kinta Food Hero 2022 event, the Junior Chamber International Kinta (JCI Kinta), alongside Little Tauke, are in the midst of organising the Children Flea Market under JCI Kinta’s School of Hope flagship project. The event is set to take place on August 28, from 9 am to 1 pm at Kong Heng Square (opposite Concubine Lane) and it will be a flea market whereby the stalls will be operated by children.
In a lead up to this, Organising Chairperson and JCI Kinta Vice President, Randolph Tan and Deputy Organising Chairperson, Stephanie Hew, have arranged for a training course that was held today for the participating children and their parents. The training was split into two parts. One to brief the parents on the goals and expectations of the project and another to prepare the children for the upcoming event.
Coach Kyle, who headed the course for the children, expertly taught the children concepts like products and supply & demand, as he guided them to develop the products that they will sell at the Children Flea Market.
On the parents’ side, Little Tauke Owner, Pui Yee, briefed the parents. She explained the programme objectives and suggested a hands off approach where possible. The programme aims to develop entrepreneurial skills in the children by helping them to understand the value of hard work, the value of money, as well as to face and handle rejection.
She recounted a previous event, where a girl selling hot dogs started off the day with poor sales but was able to improve her sales performance when she realised that trying to directly sell to the adults was fruitless, but she could make more sales if she targeted the children instead. And the girl was able to come to this conclusion on her own.
So on top of being a fun event, it aims to teach the children real world lessons and promote perseverance and creativity. At the end of the event, a percentage of the profits will also be given to charity, in order to foster empathy and compassion as well.
Another training course will take place on August 21. If any parents and their children are interested, they may register by scanning the QR code in the poster below, or refer to the contact information next to the QR code.
By KT Leong
