For children to study not only at home: the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation has equipped shelters in five educational institutions in the Chernihiv region

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The Foundation's team

Thanks to the partners of the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation, more than 3,000 children were able to return to offline learning. These are pupils of the Sedniv Lyceum, Chernihiv Lyceum No. 15, Chernihiv Secondary School No. 19, Chernihiv Professional Lyceum of Railway Transport and Prominets kindergarten in the village of Kolychivka.

The Chernihiv region was one of the first to be de-occupied, but only half of the schools were able to resume offline education. The Voices of Children chose this region for the equipment of shelters because it was heavily damaged but is recovering much more slowly than the Kyiv region.

For children to study not only at home: the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation has equipped shelters in five educational institutions in the Chernihiv region — Image 1

"Immediately after the de-occupation of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the question arose of how to restore the 'children's' infrastructure so that Ukrainian families could return home. We understand how important it is for children to be able to study not only at home in front of screens. Many families decide to return, for example, from abroad, because of this factor," said Andriy Chernousov, a member of the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation's board.

All the facilities that the foundation repairs and equips are the simplest shelters (according to the SES classification). Most educational facilities in Ukraine are equipped with such shelters. However, even the simplest shelter has to be used for 48 hours. Despite the mandatory requirements, the foundation initiated the installation of comfortable bathrooms and sewage systems.

"This is not required, we could manage with bio-toilets. But we wanted to create a more comfortable environment for children and teachers to stay in the shelter during the alarms. Besides, it is about dignity," added Andriy Chernousov.

The shelters can even be used for teaching, as chairs, a screen, and a projector have been purchased for some educational institutions.

"This is a very important initiative for the educational process and communities of the Chernihiv region today," said Maksym Podzhary, director of the Chernihiv Professional Lyceum of Railway Transport.

These projects were made possible thanks to the help of our foundation's partners. A donation of €90,000 from Caritas France was used to equip the Sedniv Lyceum, the Chernihiv Lyceum No. 15, and the Chernihiv Secondary School No. 19. Another £70,000 was donated by Fiskens Automobiles (UK) from the sale of a vintage car at auction.

Most of the funds, namely $168,952, were spent by the Voices of Children Foundation to repair and equip these shelters in the Chernihiv region. The rest of the donations were spent on psychological support for the children.

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