“My students call one of the rooms in the basement a prison cell. It is long, narrow, it was cold here, and due to damaged waterproofing, water flowed down the wall. They are not used to such conditions. We have a modern school with new equipped classrooms,” said Serhii Lebedko, principal of the Ripky Lyceum.

Old school blackboards hang along the gray walls and desks are lined up in rows – each study area is assigned to a certain class.
Ripky is located 20 km from the border with Belarus, alarms here are often prolonged, up to 2-3 hours. More than 5 hundred children study in this lyceum, it is a basic educational institution in the community, where children are taken from neighboring villages, and the shoulder of the student’s transportation reaches 36 km in some places.

The school looks atypical for a village school: multimedia boards, an inclusive class with simulators for children with disabilities, STEAM education, development, and media literacy rooms, classes for anti-bullying classes, and in the yard – ecological warm beds cultivated by the children themselves. The shelter here was arranged in the basement, which was hardly used before. Its area (about 3 thousand square meters) allows you to accommodate everyone without interrupting the educational process. The children of the neighboring kindergarten, which is still closed because it does not have its own shelter, will go here. Repairs are not everywhere here, in some rooms there are wet spots on the walls from leaks, and there is no ventilation and bathrooms, says the head of the community Serhii Garus:
“We also want to equip a gym for children here, a ramp – because the school has it, but there is none here. Because of this, 8 of our children with disabilities cannot study now. We want to make an area, waterproof, plaster and paint the walls, make floors where there are none and ventilation. And here we need 10 toilets, now only two have been equipped by our own efforts.”

4.5 million hryvnias are needed for the partial overhaul of the basement, which can be used by the residents of the neighboring high-rise buildings if necessary, says the principal:

“Parents are coming back, the offline learning factor is crucial. People see that children are gradually returning to school, communicating with teachers – the level of knowledge is increasing. Locals are also asking for the return of kindergartens. They are asking to run it for at least 4 hours. We are ready to provide co-financing, we will put other projects on hold, because shelter in schools is the first priority.”

Solution:

Shelter Arrangement.

Estimated cost: UAH 4,500,000.