Support through education: NGO "La Strada-Ukraine" provided assistance to 8,978 children from de-occupied and crisis territories of Ukraine

Support through education:
NGO "La Strada-Ukraine" provided assistance to 8,978 children from the deoccupied and crisis territories of Ukraine

Two years, thousands of kilometers, 40 settlements located in the deoccupied territories and crisis regions of Ukraine, almost 9,000 students, over 560 classes held, thousands of sincere smiles and hundreds of candid conversations - these are the results of the work of the La Strada-Ukraine NGO team in the 2023-2025 academic years!

Thanks to the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), over two years, the organization's specialists have conducted classes on the following topics for 8,978 students from educational institutions in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Poltava, Odessa, and Mykolaiv regions:

  • understanding and working with one's own emotions;
  • ensuring one's own security in war conditions;
  • identification and protection of rights in cases of bullying in the educational environment;
  • leaving a violent (abusive) relationship.

 

Face-to-face interactive events during a full-scale war turned out to be very relevant and important. And not only because we discussed socially important topics with the children, but also because they simply wanted more communication, and some simply wanted to talk about what hurts: how they lived under occupation and held on bravely; how their dad is fighting and they miss him at home; how sad it is that their best friend/girlfriend moved abroad and now it’s not the same kind of communication at all… Perhaps it was for these conversations that it was worth organizing these trips, — says Alena Kryvulyak, Director of the Department of National Hotlines and Social Assistance of the NGO "La Strada-Ukraine".

However, the most special for the children were the art therapy classes, which aimed to relieve the children's emotional tension, help them recognize their strengths, and learn to find and restore their own resources. The methods were selected according to the children's age and their characteristics.

According to Alyona Kryvulyak, art therapy classes for children became a feature of these trips. They were extremely important so that the children could relax a little, breathe, dream, through creativity. Air plasticine, paints, pastel pencils - all this made the classes for the children bright, positive and happy.

During the sessions, children also learned about the existence of the National Hotline for Children and Youth, where they can receive the necessary help and support free of charge, confidentially, anonymously, and 24/7.

Each student also received informational materials with contacts for the National Hotline for Children and Youth as a gift.

Based on the results of each visit, the organization's specialists provided feedback and recommendations to the administrations of educational institutions regarding identified problematic issues that were reported by children during the classes.

NGO "La Strada-Ukraine" is sincerely grateful to all visited educational institutions and local education departments for their assistance and willingness to conduct such classes on the basis of these educational institutions. Only by consolidating efforts will we be able to create a safe and violence-free educational environment for children!