International funds donate 5,000 tablets for studying to Ukrainian socially vulnerable children
In partnership with the German initiative #WeAreAllUkrainians, the global organization Plan International is starting a regional humanitarian response project in Ukraine. The project aims to boost access to online education and support vulnerable girls and boys of primary school age from families affected by the war in Ukraine and internally displaced children. As the #WeAreAllUkrainians partner, the Ukrainian charity fund BGV implements the project in Ukraine with the assistance of Ombudsman's Office.
As part of the project, the BGV will deliver 5,000 tablets to displaced children. Children of primary school age (6 to 11 years old), including children with special educational needs, and children from families in difficult life circumstances and on social support will be able receive assistance.
The project is implemented in the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions.
"We want to achieve something together for children who don't have the opportunity to participate in school life. It's great that Plan International and #WeAreAllUkrainians have come up with a way to help together. Thank you to all the partners who get involved and ensure that children can continue to study for their future," says Volodymyr Klychko, co-founder of the German aid organization #WeAreAllUkrainians.
The Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights also supported the project. The regional representatives of the Ombudsman's Office and social services will be contacting families and children who meet the project's criteria and need such assistance now. Employees of the Ombudsman's regional representative offices will help families register and fill out an application for participation in the project.
The project's logistics partner is Nova Poshta, which will deliver tablets to each recipient to the nearest branches in five regions of Ukraine.
All tablets will be equipped with SIM cards with prepaid 4G Internet for one year by the mobile partner of the project, Vodafone Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, as of February 2023, the Russians destroyed or damaged 1,702 schools. In total, 10% of Ukraine's educational infrastructure was damaged by Russian forces. Russian shelling completely destroyed 261 schools in Ukraine and cannot be restored.
Educational institutions were most affected in the following regions: Donetsk (67% destroyed or damaged), Kharkiv (38%), Luhansk (35%), Mykolaiv (26%), Kherson (21%), Zaporizhzhia (17%), Kyiv (13 %) and Chernihiv (13%).
Due to Russian aggression, education in schools was interrupted for 5.7 million Ukrainian children. As of May 2023, according to the Institute of Educational Analytics, with almost 4 million students, 1.46 million children are covered by distance learning, another 1.2 million schoolchildren have a mixed form of education. For this reason, one of the priority tasks today is to provide children with quality access to online education.
