Kyiv volunteers collect school supplies for children in front-line areas

On September 1, Ukraine will celebrate the Day of Knowledge. This year, before the start of the new school year, a team of volunteers from the PORUCH NGO initiated the Kind Backpack campaign and organized the collection of stationery and school supplies, Rubryka reports.

What is the problem?

For the second year in a row, due to Russia's war, not all Ukrainian children will be able to go to school in their hometown or village. Many children are displaced because their families fled Russian shelling.

Nevertheless, all children whose families stayed in their front-line settlements have the right to education and need support.

What is the solution?

"Every month, we deliver humanitarian aid to the Donetsk region and see with our own eyes how many children there are. Despite everything, they should have the right to childhood and education," said Rusana Sharlai, head of the PORUCH volunteer union. "These children do not choose life in a war zone, but they can choose their future. Our team decided to give them a premonition of the holiday. That's why throughout August, we are collecting stationery sets, which we called the Kind Backpack, for children at the front line."

How does it work?

The charity aims to collect 500 school kits for children from the war-torn East. One kit will have 15 notebooks, five pens, two pencils, a ruler, a rubber, a pencil sharpener, a drawing book, paints, brushes, plasticine, scissors, coloring pencils, colorful paper, and glue.

Anyone from any part of Ukraine or abroad can join the initiative and donate supplies. Collect your stationery set and send it to the PORUCH volunteer union headquarters. If you live in Kyiv, you can bring it in person. You can also donate money, and the NGO will buy supplies.

"At the end of August, the team of the PORUCH volunteer union will go to the Donetsk region to bring stationery to children and give them the magical feeling of a holiday, unpacking and assembling new school supplies before September 1," says Rusana Sharlai.

You can bring stationery to the headquarters daily on Mon-Wed 11:00-13:00, Thu 16:00-18:00, Fri-Sun 11:00-13:00, to St. Chornovola, 25, Kyiv. You can send it by mail to Rusana Sharlai, Kyiv, Nova Post #337, +380509078957. Please pay for shipping. Support by donating at card number 5375 4112 0750 0963.

From September 1, three formats of education will operate in Ukrainian schools. Each region has its own, depending on the security situation. A new form of distance learning will also be introduced.

During the survey, it was found that more than half of Ukrainians, or 63.4%, do not support distance learning in schools in connection with the war.