With the administrative support of the Ukraine Support Team (UST) coalition, the school in the village of Voznesenske in Chernihiv Region will receive a current roof repairs and major renovation of the food block along with a dining room. The total cost of the works is over 150,000 euros.
Voznesenske of Kyselivka community is located 7 km from Chernihiv. From the first days of the full-scale invasion until April 2022, the village was under occupation. Russian soldiers based in the premises of the gymnasium.
During one of the shelling, the roof of the educational institution was damaged by projectile fragments. During heavy rains and after heavy snowfalls, it flows, says the director of Voznesensk Gymnasium, Leonid Horbach.
Full-time education was resumed here already in September 2022, thanks to the available shelter. Currently, 66 students study in the gymnasium (including those from the village of Novoselivka, which suffered large-scale destruction during the Russians’ attempts to take Chernihiv), as well as 14 kindergarten students.
Repair work will begin here shortly. The project is implemented by a member of the UST coalition – the SavEd fund, which takes care of restoring children’s access to education in Ukraine. The funding for this project is provided by Slovak foundations – Open Society Foundation Bratislava and Pontis Foundation – thanks to the generous support of the Taipei Representative Office in Slovakia.
Another 97,000 hryvnias for the development of the project and estimated documentation are provided by the Kyselivska community council.
The report summarizes the work result of the UST (Ukraine Support Team) – a coalition of local and national organizations committed to facilitating recovery and resilience in war-affected regions of Ukraine. Our mission is to create and sustain recovery ecosystems through social engagement, economic revival, and strategic collaborations.
Eight non-governmental organizations, analytical centres, and experts have united to work comprehensively to restore life in the front-line and de-occupied regions in 5 key directions of social sphere: energy and utilities, education, health care, legal advice on compensation for damaged housing and debris management.
Read or download the final report below.
On November 14th UST in Mykolaiv held the coordinational meeting of international organizations, and national NGOs working in the field of education in the Mykolaiv Region, the regional military administration representatives on problems and challenges in restoring access to education in the region and child protection, prospects for strengthening cooperation and establishing permanent ties, coordination, and presentations of presence strategies in the Mykolaiv region and concrete activity plans for 2024.
There are 35-40 organizations that participate directly in the education cluster in the Mykolaiv region. It seems impossible to resume in-person education in most communities of the region due to the proximity of the war zone and the high probability of shelling. Digital Learning Centers and the conversion of existing premises into temporary schools have proven to be effective solutions in communities that have been under occupation for a long time or on the front line of hostilities and have suffered significant destruction.
The main needs of the region in restoring access to education:
- arrangement of shelters;
- restoration of access to drinking water in Mykolaiv;
- increase in educational centers, extracurricular activities, and safety classes;
- reconstruction of professional education institutions;
- provision of psychological support and cyber security, etc.
Among the participants of the meeting were representatives of Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Mykolaiv City Council, UNICEF, Plan International, SavED, NGO “10th of April”, Charitable Fund “Children of Heroes”, Association of innovative and digital education, MontessoriUA, MontessoriMykolaiv, IREX, SURGe, NRC, Peace Winds Japan, IsraAID, NGO Oleksandr Pedan’s movement JuniorS, NGO ISTOK, Charitable organization “Club of benefactors”, Save the Children, Charitable fund «Schedryk».
Representatives of territorial communities of the region met with national and international NGO’s that provide expert and donor assistance in the field of restoring access to education in order to coordinate joint efforts in overcoming the problems of the sector caused by the war. The forum was organized by the Chernihiv office of UST together with the Regional Office of International Cooperation of Chernihiv Regional Military Administration
As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 144 educational institutions were damaged or destroyed in the region. According to Yuri Muzika, head of the education department of the Chernihiv OVA, 75 of them have been restored today. He calls the return of children to face-to-face education the most important task.
“This year’s indicators inspire hope that with joint efforts we will be able to make up for educational losses. Today, 38% of schools in our country study offline, 46% – in a mixed form, and only 16% study remotely.”
It is the coordination of joint work between state and local authorities and NGOs that can speed up the reconstruction process, according to Tetyana Yasochko, adviser to the head of the Chernihiv Regional Military Administration:
“The purpose of this event is to establish communication between donors and communities that need help. We want to build this dialogue so that our joint work to restore the industry is as effective as possible.”
One of the serious problems in the field of education in Chernihiv Region, according to Andrii Kuzhel, head of the UST Chernihiv office, is the uneven implementation of projects in the region:
“Help is often focused closer to Kyiv. The Kyiv highway is like a conditional demarcation line. We all understand that it is logistically more convenient, but we have to remember the borders, where many donors are afraid to go. People leave from there, and the lack of access to education is one of the factors of this migration.”
Thus, in the 20-kilometer zone on the border with Russia, where face-to-face education is prohibited, there are 19 schools and 17 kindergartens, where almost 2 thousand children study in total. According to Tetyana Kovalchuk, head of the education department of the Novgorod-Siver city council, in two months of the school year, the number of students in community schools decreased by 20 children. Out of 13 schools in the community, only one is open.
“We are a community that is in the zone of possible hostilities, we have a 20-km zone. If we don’t have a school, we have less than 200 students, and funds are usually taken for large schools, – says Tetyana Kovalchuk. – In Novgorod-Siversky, we have a large lyceum for 800 students, where there is no shelter. We are developing project documentation for its construction, we are asking designers to break it into complexes in order to implement it in parts, but there is no donor for this either. We need to work on finding funds that are willing to join together.”
Representatives of 18 territorial communities of the region took part in the forum. In addition, the event was attended by the largest international foundations that take care of the reconstruction of the education sector in Chernihiv Region, in particular: UNICEF, IOM, ACTED, NRC, FCA, United 24, “Partnership for a Resilient Ukraine” та SavEd.
As part of the forum, representatives of international organizations presented their policies and areas of activity, talked about work plans for 2024. Anna Putsova, the head of the operational direction of the SavEd fund, on the initiative of which the first 8 digital educational centers were created in the schools of the region, emphasized the importance of the proactive position of local self-government bodies.
“A correctly articulated need with the right reasoning is equal to the satisfaction of that need. International funds can help you, but it is important to offer your vision on how to solve this problem, to work out legislation and possible solutions. Only then can this mechanism move from its place,” she addressed the representatives of the communities of the region.@
On July 7, 2023, during a visit to the Chernihiv region, the adviser to the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Artem Husak, the head of the UST coalition Olena Koltyk, the head of the Chernihiv office of the UST Andriy Kuzhel met with the head of the Chernihiv Region Military Administration Vyacheslav Chaus discussed the first results of the work of the Regional Office for International Cooperation on the reconstruction of Chernhiv region.
“Very positive reviews about the start of the work of the Regional Office in the Chernihiv region. It is clear that the region suffered a lot as a result of military aggression, complex issues, a common border with the enemy… But what was done during 2022 and the year 2023 shows the openness of the regional military administration, the Regional Development Agency, and communities to cooperate with governmental and non-governmental partners.” – said Mr. Husak.
According to Mr. Husak, Regional Offices for International Cooperation have already been established in all regions of Ukraine. Each region will have its own specificity of work, in particular, the most affected areas will focus on recovery.
Vyacheslav Chaus noted that the goal of creating the Regional Office of International Cooperation is permanent systematization and uninterrupted work with all existing and potential partners. “Chernihiv region cooperates with more than 300 donor organizations, development partners, and charitable organizations,” he said.
Ukraine Support Team is also working on the reconstruction of the Chernihiv Region, in particular helping to restore access to education, health care services, housing and communal services, and ensuring stable heat and electricity supply. The head of the UST coalition, Olena Koltyk, noted that the establishment of cooperation between donors, local authorities and civil society is the key to effective reconstruction. “The work of our office is aimed at increasing the capacity of communities. We help communities identify priority needs for reconstruction, find optimal technical solutions, and attract financing,” she added.
As part of the visit, Artem Husak and the Ukraine Support Team also visited the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital, the Lyceum in Mykhailo-Kotsyubinsky, and the village of Yagidne.
With the help of donors, the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital recently received a hybrid solar power station that provides an uninterrupted power supply. However, the hospital’s small patients still do not have a shelter, for which the search for funding is ongoing.
Lyceum in the village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske has the status of the hub school, but it was destroyed by a russian missile. The United 24 platform and football players Andriy Shevchenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who will play in a charity match in London in August, joined the fundraising for the reconstruction of the lyceum. And while the collection of considerable costs for the reconstruction of the lyceum continues, there is a need to purchase more than 500 tablets to provide students with access to distance education.
The small village of Yagidne in the Chernihiv region, which was occupied by the russians for almost a month, is called by local residents “Chernihivska Bucha”. Here, the invaders also shot unarmed civilians and destroyed their houses. Reconstruction works are currently underway in Yagidne. The village was included in the national experimental project on comprehensive restoration. It is planned to repair 101 private houses and 17 apartment buildings, 2 objects of social infrastructure, and 2 – commercial real estate. Works are divided into several phases. The first has 41 buildings.
The Regional Office for International Cooperation is an initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine, which aims to develop the interaction of local and regional authorities with international partners who seek to cooperate at the level of the region and territorial community.
Фото: СпешиLove
“Education becomes a key criterion for the return of people, a key criterion for the integration of women into community life. Because if there is no school and kindergarten, you can’t expect that the woman will return to work. Restoring access to education is critical when rebuilding communities,” UST Coalition expert Anna Novosad said.
Our expert in education Anna Novosad moderated the workshop on “Restoring access to education: dialogue on the role of Ukrainian communities in repair, restoration and reconstruction”. It was held on May 10, in Chernihiv School No. 3 on the initiative of the “U-LEAD with Europe”. This school was not destroyed during the blockade of the city by russian troops, however, it suffered much greater losses – three of its students were shot by the occupiers during the attempt of families to evacuate from the surrounded Chernihiv.
The workshop was attended by representatives of the European Commission, the NGO “U-LEAD with Europe”, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine, the State Reconstruction Agency, representatives of 12 communities from Chernihiv Region, Kyiv Region and Kharkiv Region. Prioritization and actualization of existing needs were identified as one of the most urgent issues during the discussion. Thus, according to Deputy Minister of Education Yevhen Kudryavtsev, the MMinistry of Education is already working on creating a single coordination platform that should simplify the search for donors and systematize the process of helping communities.
The UST team, in its quest to restore life in the regions, was guided by the effectiveness of the restoration process from the very beginning. To do this, we have developed and use a unique Methodology of SMART Prioritization of needs, which allows us to categorize existing needs by scale, severity and dynamics.
