The director of the lyceum in Chervona Dolyna: «The ruins that I see every day were one of the best schools in the Mykolaiv region»

Viktor Mushin, director of the Chervonodolynskyi Lyceum, photo: savED

Lyceum in the village of Chervona Dolyna in the Mykolaiv region was destroyed by a Russian C-300 missile in March 2022. The facility cannot be restored and needs to be built from scratch.

This was told by school director Viktor Mushin in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda. Life.

Chervona Dolyna was on the front line for almost eight months, huge Russian convoys of vehicles passed by the village. During this time, the settlement suffered devastating destruction. At the same time, Russians shelled a school and a kindergarten.

A school in Chervona Dolyna destroyed by Russian shelling, photo: savED

A school in Chervona Dolyna destroyed by Russian shelling, photo: savED

A school in Chervona Dolyna destroyed by Russian shelling, photo: savED

«These ruins... I see them every day. Previously, it was one of the best schools in the Mykolaiv region. And in studies, and in sports, and in work. We always tried to be among the first. It was both an air raid and a bomb. First, the roof was destroyed by shelling, and after the airstrikes, a large part of the school was destroyed. Chemical room, physical room, dining room. Terribly. At that time, we still remained here, together with our soldiers guarded the school, helped them. When it became dangerous and the first victims appeared, people began to leave,» recalls director Viktor Mushin.

The director of the institution and his wife temporarily left for Bashtanka, which is 40 kilometers from Chervona Dolyna. However, every Sunday they returned to take out school property — laptops, stamps, documents.

The lyceum itself served as a humanitarian hub at the beginning of the invasion. Teachers, together with other women, prepared food there and gave it to the soldiers. However, it did not last long — until March 22, when the school was destroyed.

The facility cannot be restored, photo: savED

Only after the de-occupation of the Mykolaiv region in November 2022, residents began to return to Chervona Dolyna — the first were teachers, the head of the community, Serhiy Peresunko, in particular, insisted on this.

«The teachers asked: «What should we do here? There is no light, no Internet.» Do you know what my answer was? Come home, clean up near the house, cover it and it will already be a help. All the teachers listened and returned. They became an example for young families. Something had to be done, because the school will not be rebuilt in a year or two, and our children need to study somewhere,» said the head of the community.

The only center of face-to-face education in Chervona Dolyna today is consultations in the digital educational center «Vulik», which functions in the cultural center. The initiative was implemented by the savED foundation.

Children of all ages come to the Beehive, photo: savED

Children of all ages come to the Beehive, photo: savED

Children of all ages come to the Beehive, photo: savED

Currently, the training of working classes is underway. The management of the institution says that there will be 7 of them — a kind of modular school where 170 children will study.

We will remind you that Maksym Ishchenko, the founder of the IT job search service Djinni and the DOU IT community, donated UAH 300,000 for the repair of the school shelter.

Chervona Dolyna is a village in the Bashtan district, which was shelled continuously for 8 months, and only in August 2023 people began to return there: to repair not only residential buildings, but also administrative buildings.

It is worth noting that philanthropists, in particular savED, in cooperation with Mykolaiv RMA , will build 5 modular schools on the territory of the de-occupied part of Mykolaiv region.

How does the savED fund help the Mykolaiv region?

savED is an international charitable foundation that restores access to education in communities affected by the war in Ukraine.

Thus, in August 2023, savED launched a civic education program for Mykolaiv schoolchildren. Pupils of 10 schools in Mykolayivska had the opportunity to take part in the civic education program and implement their own social projects.

In December, it became known that students of five schools in the Mykolaiv Region won grants worth $5,000 as part of the educational project of the civic education program from Spirit of America and savED.

Also, the fund together with the publication «Ukrainian Pravda» as part of the «To school again» campaign announced a fundraiser for the construction of a shelter for the Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55, which in the new academic year should become a key school in the city district.

In addition, the savED charitable fund together with the Readeat bookstore collected 340 thousand hryvnias for the purchase of books for the libraries of the Mykolaiv region.