Sweden's H&M introduces new currency Unicoin with UNICEF

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Jun 12, 2015

High street fashion giant H&M's Conscious Foundation is collaborating with UNICEF on an inventive charity initiative: the Unicoin.

The educational initiative lets children upload drawings of what they dream of becoming when they grow up to unicoins.org. They then exchange the drawing for a Unicoin, and H&M matches each Unicoin with one notebook and pencil, which UNICEF gives to children around the world.

The Unicoin is meant to raise awareness about the importance of Early Childhood Development. "1 out of 3 children in the developing world don’t achieve their full potential before entering primary school due to causes linked to poverty, lack of access to learning opportunities, poor health, and malnutrition. But together we can change this by providing the most disadvantaged children with access to early childhood care and education," Pia R. Britto, Senior Advisor, Chief Early Childhood Development Section, UNICEF Headquarters.

“No matter where you live, all children have one thing in common - the ability to dream. By sharing children’s drawings, we can help more children to reach their full learning potential and build a better future for themselves,” says Charlotte Brunnström, Program Manager for Education at the H&M Conscious Foundation.