street market in Nairobi, Kenya A street market in Nairobi, Kenya. Source: AdobeStock

CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis., donated $125,000 to The ACCOSCA Academy, a project of the African Confederation of Cooperative Savings & Credit Associations (ACCOSCA), according to an announcement from Climb Africa, a fundraising campaign benefitting the in-the-works academy.

ACCOSCA is developing The ACCOSCA Academy to provide education and training for employees of SACCOs – savings and credit cooperatives in Africa that are members of ACCOSCA. According to Climb Africa's website, the academy's organizers are working to raise $1.2 million to outfit their offices and build a state-of-the-art Training Academy facility, and have set a goal of acquiring $680,000 of that amount from American credit unions and their partners.

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Natasha Chilingerian

Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.