The Initiative DECIDE: VIDBUDOVA. School Recovery Initiative is launched

The Initiative DECIDE: VIDBUDOVA. School Recovery Initiative is launched! The initiative is aimed at supporting local communities in Chernihiv, Odesa, and Poltava oblasts in the construction of school shelters. Switzerland is providing support to hromadas and schools in Ukraine in the amount of 4.3 million francs, which is approximately 172 million hryvnias.

On July 25 the team of theDECIDE project together with the national partners – the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine held a presentation of the initiative and announced the selection of communities. They can submit their applications for participation in the program until August 2 inclusive.

In his welcoming speech Oksen Lisovyi, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, thanked the Swiss government and in particular the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine for supporting Ukraine and urged communities to join the initiative.

“Its value is not only in the fact that shelters in educational institutions will be repaired, which will help expand the fund of protective structures, but also in training,” said Oksen Lisovyi. “The initiative will teach project management and fundraising. All this will give impetus to the development of Ukrainian education. I am convinced that the communities that will join the initiative will appreciate it and be satisfied with the result.”

The minister also added that today 75% of Ukrainian schools have shelters of different levels and quality. This means that full-time education, which is a priority, can be organized for 65% of pupils. The most important thing is that children should study safely!

Therefore, the initiative “DECIDE: VIDBUDOVA. School Recovery Initiative” will allow us to organize continuous education for another 15,000 schoolchildren in shelters during the air raid in three regions, namely Chernihiv, Odessa and Poltava.

“This is a crucial initiative, especially on the eve of the start of the school year. After all, a restored school or kindergarten is one of the key conditions for restoring life in the affected communities and returning Ukrainians home,” commented Ms. Oleksandra Azarkhina, Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine.

According to her, the reconstruction of schools continues. There is still a lot to do, but to date, 404 schools have already been restored – funds have been allocated from the Fund for the Elimination of the Consequences of Armed Aggression, EIB loans, and grants. As for future plans, 213 school reconstruction projects worth UAH 7.6 billion have been entered into the state e-system DREAM.

“For us, it is not an empty word that the reconstruction of Ukraine should begin with communities, and it is the communities that should be the leaders of the reconstruction,” – added Oleksandra Azarkhina.

Andreas Huber, Director of the Cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, also took part in the opening of the initiative. He emphasized that the destruction of schools continues, and this is also the destruction of the future.

“We are trying to do everything in our power to overcome this. We need to engage business and other donors – everyone who can help. Switzerland has long been a reliable partner in supporting the development of local self-government in Ukraine. And in this difficult time, we want to help provide children with quality and safe education. We want communities to become stronger, we want them to have the resources to recover and we want Ukrainian children to have a better future,” said Mr. Andreas Huber.

Within the “DECIDE: VIDBUDOVA. School Recovery Initiative” not only school shelters will be repaired, but also 2 pilot special projects will be implemented. The first one involves the restoration of the school No. 13 in Chernihiv, where more than a thousand children study, including children from two destroyed local schools.

The second special project is the reconstruction of the Borodyansky Inclusive Resource Center in Kyiv region. Its specialists work with children with special educational needs who have suffered from the occupation. Their number is constantly increasing in the de-occupied territories, so IRCs are especially important.

“For four years now, the DECIDE project has been working with local communities to develop education. In the near future, we will select 25 partner communities in which we will repair shelters in schools and create educational hubs,” said Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE project manager.

She also said that each community that becomes a partner of the initiative will learn how to write and implement reconstruction projects, organize the process of raising funds from international donors, and engage young people.

“At DECIDE, we believe that young people should be involved in the decision-making process in their communities from the time they are in school and feel like citizens of their country, on whom their fate depends,” emphasized Valentyna Poltorak.

The event also included panel discussions on:
– restoration of access to education in times of war with the participation of MPs Natalia Pipa and Roman Hryschuk from the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovations;
– safe education in communities and regions, with the head of the Chernihiv Oblast State Administration Chaus Viacheslav, Dmytro Lunin, the head of the Poltava Oblast State Administration and Roman Hryhoryshyn, the deputy head of the Odessa Oblast Administration.

To discuss the topic of rebuilding the educational infrastructure, we invited Zhanna Osypenko, Deputy Head of the Kyiv Oblast State Administration, Yuriy Muzyka, the head of the Department of Education and Science of the Chernihiv Oblast State Administration, Vasyl Bilogura, the head of the Department of Education of the Chernihiv City Council and Oleksandr Saharuk, the Head of the Borodianka Settlement Community.

We will publish more details and the main theses of the speakers later.

In the meantime, we are waiting for community applications and joint work!

Find out more about the initiative and the selection process here: bit.ly/decide-vidbudova