The coin crowdfunding campaign was happening throughout Ukraine for three months, from September 4 to December 8, 2023. 

During these three months, Ukrainians collected 4.3 million hryvnias (a bit more than $116,000 — ed.) within the Smiliva Hryvnia (“Brave Hryvnia” from English — ed.) initiative started by the National Bank of Ukraine. The initiative was aimed at young people and children who had the opportunity to donate to educational facilities they attended. The NBU reported on this.

“[We’re especially] thankful to teachers who actively organized crowdfunding within their educational facilities. More than 2.5 thousand educational facilities from every corner of Ukraine participated in this initiative, even those from the occupied territories,” said Yulia Yevtushenko, Head of the Communication Department of the National Bank of Ukraine.

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The sum collected during these three months was transferred to a special NBU account, opened to contain funds for the requirements of Ukrainian defense forces. Everybody could donate coins with denominations from 10 kopiika to 10 hryvnias to help Ukrainian soldiers. Apart from that, people were able to bring coins that went out of circulation with denominations of 1, 2, 5, and 25, putting them into a special donation box in the banks. They will be transferred to the special account meant for the AFU as well. 

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