Financial literacy for Ukrainians — at home in Ukraine, and rebuilding in the United States.
Two full training courses, each taught in the system you actually live in. One in Ukrainian, built around Ukrainian banking. One in English, built around the U.S. system — for students here, and for families who have to learn it from scratch after arriving.
Student-founded, student-run. Everything we make is free, and always will be.
Impact
3,000+
people taught through workshops
Languages
2
Ukrainian and English
Chapters
4
New Jersey, Texas, Georgia, Ukraine
Views
10,000+
on our training videos on YouTube
Our mission
To give every Ukrainian student — at home and in the U.S. — the financial knowledge to hold their ground in wartime and rebuild wherever they land. Taught in their language, about their banks, free of charge, for as long as it takes.
Three years ago I signed up to volunteer with ENGin, which pairs Ukrainian students with English-speaking volunteers. I expected to teach English. What I mostly did was listen — to what it is like to plan a life when the currency, the job market and the electricity are all uncertain, and when your family may have to start over in a country whose financial system nobody has explained to you.
The same questions came up week after week. Where do I put money so the war does not eat it? Is a deposit safe? If we leave, how does any of this work over there? These were not questions about arithmetic. They were questions nobody had answered, for students who had every reason to be asking them.
We are the sons of immigrant parents, so the second half was already familiar. We had watched our own families struggle with an unfamiliar system and get taken in by scams — not for lack of intelligence or effort, but for lack of information nobody thought to give them. A student in Kharkiv and a family that landed in New Jersey last spring need different lessons, not translated versions of the same one.
So we built the course twice: once in Ukrainian, around hryvnia budgeting, Ukrainian banks and inflation, and once in English, around credit scores, paychecks and taxes. Free, self-paced, open to anyone — no fee, no account, no waiting for a school to adopt it. War takes enough from these students. It should not also take their shot at financial independence.
- Aditya Herekar, Co-founder
Why it matters
Both systems fail the same age group
In Ukraine and in the United States, teenagers and young adults score lowest of any group measured. A student who moves between the two systems gets the gap twice.
46.6%
correct answers among 10th-graders
The first national study of financial literacy among Ukrainian schoolchildren found a basic level — a 3 on the 12-point school scale.
NBU & Junior Achievement Ukraine, 2024
12.3/21
national score, below the OECD minimum of 14
58% of the maximum. Adults aged 18–19 scored lowest of every age group, at 10.1.
NBU / USAID nationwide survey, 2021
38%
among Gen Z — the weakest of any generation
U.S. adults overall answered 47% of the 28 index questions correctly in 2026, the lowest in the survey's ten-year history.
TIAA Institute–GFLEC P-Fin Index, 2026
$100k
lifetime benefit per student, from one course
A single semester of personal finance is worth about $100,000 over a lifetime — mostly from avoiding high-interest debt and qualifying for better rates on loans, insurance and a mortgage. Our course costs nothing.
Tyton Partners & Next Gen Personal Finance, 2024
In partnership with ENGin
Built with Ukrainian students, not just for them
Our Ukrainian course grew out of years of weekly conversations with Ukrainian teenagers through ENGin, the nonprofit pairing Ukrainian learners with English-speaking volunteers. Aditya has volunteered with ENGin for more than three years, and our work was featured in ENGin's volunteer newsletter.
Those conversations are why the course is taught in Ukrainian, fully customized for the Ukrainian financial system — not just translated from an American script.
The two courses
Pick the system you live in
Roughly 30 minutes each · free on YouTube
The Ukrainian system, from zero
For students in Ukraine · ~30 min
Taught in Ukrainian and built around the Ukrainian financial system — hryvnia budgeting, Ukrainian banks and cards, deposits and inflation, and saving under uncertainty.
- 01 Budgeting and spending
- 02 Deposits, credit, interest
- 03 Inflation and protecting savings
The U.S. system, from zero
In English, built around how money actually works in the United States — the things schools rarely teach, and the things nobody explains to a family that just arrived.
- 01 Credit scores and building credit
- 02 Bank accounts, taxes, paychecks
- 03 Saving, investing, avoiding scams
What learners say
Reviews from both courses
Hear it from a school authority
A church school principal talks about what she thinks about the workshops.
«До цих занять я не мала уявлення, як керувати грошима і з чого взагалі почати. Тепер я справді розумію бюджетування і почуваюся впевненіше щодо свого майбутнього.»
«Я завжди думала, що фінанси — це занадто складно для мене, але Invest2Empower пояснює все просто і зрозуміло.»
«Короткі відео — мої улюблені: швидко, чітко і справді корисно. Саме через них я почала відкладати гроші.»
«Мені було комфортно. Я не боялася задавати питання, і від цього вчитися стало легше.»
"The workshops didn't just teach concepts—they showed me exactly what to do. I opened my first bank account after attending."
"I used to avoid thinking about money because it stressed me out. Now I feel like I have control and a plan."
"As someone who didn't grow up learning about money, this program made a huge difference. It feels like knowledge I should've had earlier."
"I didn't think financial planning applied to me, but now I'm thinking about long-term goals for the first time."
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Benjamin Franklin