“The Unicoin has created worldwide engagement and helped shed light on the important issue of every child’s right to education. Together with UNICEF, we will now provide 20,000 children with notebooks and pencils, a scarce resource for the most vulnerable children,” says Charlotte Brunnström, Program Manager for Education at the H&M Foundation.
The news about the Unicoin currency as a tool to acknowledge children’s right to early learning and development has spread to more than 180 million people – through bitcoin communities, to large international media. The currency has also engaged children and grown-ups at pre-schools in Russia, Holland, Japan, and Tanzania. Here, children have portrayed what they dream of becoming as they grow up in order to support other children to fulfil their dreams too – by exchanging drawings for Unicoins. “I like to imagine and build things and one day I hope to build a better world,” says one of many children who wants to become an engineer when he grows up, as he exchanges his drawing for a Unicoin.
Only 17% of children in developing countries attend some type of pre-school.
Lotta Linden, UNICEF
“Our ability to acquire knowledge is set as early as in the ages between 3-5. Still, only 17 percent of children in developing countries attend some type of pre-school. Thanks to children’s engagement in the Unicoin campaign, we can make sure that more children will be given a good start in life,” says Lotta Linden, Manager for UNICEF Sweden’s corporate department.
Public drawing stations have also been set up to further the purpose of children helping other children reach their full developmental potential. An H&M children’s department in Vaughan Mills, Canada, arranged one on Saturday, and the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm arranged a workshop the week before, where children have come to draw together with their parents.
The Unicoin campaign is part of the Global Program for Education – a collaboration between H&M Foundation and UNICEF, initiated in 2014. In February 2014, the H&M Foundation announced a grant to UNICEF of 9.3 million US Dollars over a three year period.
*China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, USA, and the U.K.
For more information, contact:
Anna Danieli
UNICEF Sverige
[email protected]
076-119 12 44
Malin Björne
Communication Responsible at H&M Foundation
[email protected]
070-796 39 75