Themes by tag: children

Svitlana Humeniuk is now the director of the Kolonshchyna Lyceum, a village in the Bucha district that went through the occupation. At the time of the full-scale Russian invasion, she worked as a Design and Technology teacher and a leisure-time activities teacher. 

At the end of February 2022, the occupiers encircled the village of Kolonshchyna. People were prohibited from leaving. Many civilians who tried to escape the occupation spent the night in the school.

Svitlana and three other teachers risked their own lives to help their fellow villagers: they joined the distribution of humanitarian aid and even delivery. All this was despite the shelling and enemy missiles. To somehow protect themselves from the occupiers, they wore white ribbons on their sleeves. In addition, some families with children, including students of the lyceum she now heads, took refuge in Svitlana’s house.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces liberated Kolonshchyna village in late March 2022.

The journalists are welcome to talk to Svitlana and other Lyceum teachers. Currently, the educational institution has  215 students.

As a reminder, Ukraine celebrates Teacher’s Day on October 1.

• casualties
• children
• occupation
• Kyiv

The “Animal Rescue Kharkiv” NGO opened a contact rehabilitation center for cats “Little Prince.” Animals rescued from the war zone are rehabilitated there. In particular, the center has a contact room made to resemble a home as much as possible, where you can play with cats. According to the founders, it is a kind of rehabilitation and relaxation, both for the pets and for the people.

The room receives visitors 4 times a week. Everyone is welcome. Most of all, military personnel (who also participated in cat rescue) and children are invited there.

For reference: the “Animal Rescue Kharkiv” NGO team has been rescuing animals in the city and the region for more than 8 years. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they have also been evacuating animals from the war zone and de-occupied settlements (Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions). Volunteers, in particular, provide emergency medical assistance to animals, give them temporary shelter and find old or new owners for the pets.

• animals
• casualties
• children
• military
• volunteers
• Kharkiv

Aelita Basanets is a mother and wife of an Armed Forces serviceman. When the full-scale invasion began, she went to Poland with her son. She returned eight months later wanting to be as close as possible to her beloved and the military’s families. Aelita saw women losing their husbands in the war withdrawing into themselves and becoming reserved, distancing people. She decided to support them and founded the Children of Angels charity in Kremenchuk, which provides free care for military children and their wives. The foundation’s volunteers are tutors who prepare children for higher education institution admission. The volunteering services also include eyebrow artists, dentists, and makeup artists who work with the wives of fallen soldiers.

• children
• volunteers
• women

In Ploske village, Kyiv region, savED charity fund is creating a Digital Education Center with the support of U-LEAD program. It will serve as a learning environment equipped for extracurricular activities for children of all ages.

The Digital Education Center is being set up in the premises of a kindergarten (renovations are currently underway there), next to a school that was damaged at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Occupants stayed in it, and put their tanks near its walls. During the battle with the Ukrainian troops, tank ammunition detonated. A part of the school burned down to the ground.

For reference: Digital Educational Centers are locations for learning and leisure, which are set up in school premises (with some exceptions). There is comfortable furniture, necessary equipment, gadgets, books, board games, and creative materials. The work of the centers is organized by mentors. The centers, in particular, host entertainment and relaxation activities.

savED is an international charity fund that restores access to education in communities affected by russia’s war against Ukraine.

• children
• occupation
• reconstruction

Lyceum No. 3 will be opened in Irpin, Kyiv region, on September 16. The institution suffered the greatest destruction at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. The Lyceum building and the surrounding area were hit by 30 enemy shells and mines. The level of damage was about 75%.

The restoration of the building of Irpin Lyceum No. 3 is currently being completed. The work was funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine. Foreign and Ukrainian philanthropists have also contributed to the reconstruction of the lyceum, and funds have been raised from the local budget.

The opening ceremony will be attended by:

– Oksen Lisovyi, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine;

– Ruslan Hurak, Head of the State Education Quality Service of Ukraine;

– Serhii Babak, Chair of Verkhovna Rada’s Education, Science, and Innovations Committee;

– Ruslan Kravchenko, Head of Kyiv Oblast Military Administration;

– Danylo Mavlianov, Head of Bucha District Administration;

– Oleksandr Markushyn, Mayor of Irpin.

Event accreditation is required.

For reference, Irpin Lyceum No. 3 is one of the largest general secondary education institutions in the community and the only one located in a densely populated city neighborhood. Before the start of the full-scale war, about 2,000 students took morning or evening classes. 

• children
• occupation
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

A short film, “What Have We Lost?” written and acted by teenagers, will be screened in Kyiv. The film’s authors are children who survived the occupation, life near the fighting unfolded, traveling abroad, and other challenges of war. They will also present the film to journalists.

The teenagers created the film as part of an art therapy screenwriting course implemented by the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation. For three months, under the supervision of the director Marisa Nikitiuk, a group of children learned to live through the trauma of war through art.

The private screening of the film will take place on September 13.

Participants of the conversation:

• Nastia, Valeria, and Sofia, participants of the course, screenwriters, and actors of the film;
• Olena Rozvadovska, children’s human rights activist, Chair of the Voices of Children Foundation;
• Marysia Nikitiuk, film director (Ya.Nina, When Trees Fall), the screenwriting course tutor.

Actress Irma Vitovska and Azad Safarov, the second director of the “A House Made of Splinters” documentary, are others in attendance. 

Event accreditation is required.

For information: The Children’s Voices Charitable Foundation provides psychological and psychosocial support to children and parents affected by war.

• casualties
• children
• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

A “Safety Training Classroom” starts classes in the village of Baryshivka, Kyiv region, on September 8. The classroom training will teach students how to provide first aid and familiarize them with mine safety rules. The State Emergency Service representatives will attend the opening of the classroom.

For reference, The government approved the Safety Training Classroom to start across Ukraine in September last year. The room is fitted out with appropriate equipment to organize training on fire and mine safety. Among other things, children are taught how to act in the event of an emergency and in the event of an air raid alarm. The experts from the State Emergency Service, the National Police, medical workers, combatants, and mine safety specialists are engaged in taking “Safety Training Classroom” classes. 

• children
• Kyiv

Almost 9,500 children have been left without parental care since the beginning of the full-scale war. Of them, almost 1,500 were orphaned due to the terrorist actions of the russian federation. (Data of the National Social Service of Ukraine)

Journalists are welcome to learn more about the adoption of children during the war from representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.

“Partnership for Every Child” charitable organization educates families who want to adopt a child into their family. The students of the express courses are people who want to become: adoptive parents, foster parents, patronage caregivers and adopters.

Journalists are welcome to talk to experts from the organization (in particular, instructors, who conduct training), as well as families who adopted children during the war.

• children
• russian crimes

On September 1, a briefing “School education under Russian occupation: Incitement to hatred and destruction of Ukrainian identity.”

Participants:

– Peter Pomerantsev, British journalist, specialist in media and propaganda in modern Russia (online);

– Yevhen Bondarenko, Head of the Information Support Department of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the AR of Crimea (in person);

– Valentina Potapova, Head of the Direction of National Advocacy Department of the Almenda Center for Civic Education (in person);

– Anastasiia Vorobiova, analyst at Almenda (online);

Topics of focus:

– Narratives that Russia imposes on children in the Russia-controlled territories through textbooks;

– How Russia’s educational propaganda is gaining momentum. What to expect soon? How does Russian propaganda affect children, and what is its effectiveness?

– Legal assessment of Russia’s actions to impose Russian education on the temporarily occupied territories. Is it possible to bring to justice the authors and distributors of the textbook?

– What to do after de-occupation, how to reintegrate youth and children. Strategy from the Ukraine President’s Mission in the AR of Crimea.

For reference: On September 1, a new academic year begins for children from occupied territories. For some, it will be the 10th year, and for others, it will be the second year of living in such circumstances. For all these years, Russia has been using education for propaganda purposes, destroying the Ukrainian identity of children and militarizing them. And school textbooks are an integral tool.

• children
• occupation
• russian crimes

On August 28, savED charity fund’s photo exhibition will be opened in Kyiv. The exhibition is dedicated to the stories of schools and children affected by the full-scale war.

The opening of the photo exhibition will be attended by students of Chernihiv, Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske (Chernihiv region), Borodyanka and Katyuzhanka (Kyiv region) schools, who, despite the horrors of war, shelling and occupation, have not lost their thirst for learning and are actively rebuilding their schools and communities. Their stories will be heard during the opening of the exhibition.

The photo exhibition will be a part of a campaign to raise funds for the construction of a temporary school in the village of Chervona Dolyna, Mykolaiv region. This, in turn, is part of the fund’s fundraising campaign #to_school_again, within which the fund is collecting money for the shelter and to restore facilities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions.

For reference: As of August 2023, every tenth school in Ukraine has been destroyed by russia. And over 1,500 schools are significantly damaged or destroyed and cannot be repaired.

savED is a charity fund that restores access to education where it was taken away by war.

• children
• russian crimes
• Kyiv