«Real underground school»: the editor-in-chief of UP told about the collection of ₴4 million for the construction of the largest shelter in Mykolaiv

The editor-in-chief of UP Sevhil Musaieva and acting director of the lyceum Dmytro Vasylkov. Photo: NikVesti

The editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda Sevhil Musaieva spoke about a successful project to collect funds for the construction of an «underground lyceum» in Mykolaiv.

She wrote about it on her Facebook page.

As you know, on Thursday, May 30, the largest shelter in the city was opened in Mykolaiv Lyceum №55. All-Ukrainian online publication Ukrainska Pravda collected funds for its repair and arrangement.

Shelter at Lyceum №55. Photo: NikVesti

Shelter at Lyceum №55. Photo: NikVesti

Shelter at Lyceum №55. Photo: NikVesti

Sevhil Musaieva recalls that the project began with an ordinary conversation in the kitchen with Anna Novosad, co-founder of the savED charitable foundation and journalist Myroslava Honhadze in the summer of 2023. Initially, it was planned to collect funds for a small shelter, but later the initiative turned into a large-scale campaign to provide children with comfortable conditions for learning. Thanks to the efforts of the team and great support, it was possible to collect 4 million hryvnias.

«Yesterday was a very special day. We opened the coolest and largest (almost a thousand square meters) school shelter in Mykolaiv! In fact, it can hardly even be called a shelter. This is a real underground school where about 1000 children can study in two shifts! This project started with an ordinary conversation in the kitchen with Anna Novosad and Myroslava Honhadze in the summer of 2023. Why not do something together? I thought «let's make a small shelter where readers can donate furniture, building materials or books». As a result, everything resulted in a large collection of 4 million hryvnias. And this amount at the beginning seemed unaffordable to me. Because, of course, people will mostly pay for weapons, and that's right. But with this project, we wanted to draw attention to educational losses, childhood in Ukraine and the need not to forget about the future, says Sevhil Musaieva.

Chief editor of «Ukrainian Pravda» Sevhil Musaieva. The photo was published on the Facebook page of Sevhil Musaieva

The collection of funds continued slowly, so the team launched a whole fundraising campaign: a flash mob with children's photos, auctions, raffles of T-shirts of famous people, meetings with journalists. As a result, it was possible to collect the necessary funds in three months. 600 thousand hryvnias were donated by Dragon Capital Property Management, the Sean Penn CORE fund doubled the collection, another 1 million was collected by Lviv educators. The Kiwi service also bought some furniture for the shelter.

Anna Putsova, the head of the operational direction of the savED fund, also shared her emotions from the opening of the shelter, calling it her «child» and her favorite project.

Students of Lyceum №55 in shelter. Photo: NikVesti

Students of Lyceum N№55 in shelter. Photo: NikVesti

The editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda Sevhil Musaieva expressed her gratitude to everyone who supported this initiative, stressing that it is a great investment in the future of children and the country as a whole.

«Yesterday I cried with happiness when I saw how hundreds of children went down to this shelter for lessons. In September of this year, for the first time since February 24, 2022, they will have the opportunity to study offline. Among the students are many immigrants from Kherson and the region, currently occupied towns and villages. For me, this project is, first of all, about great synergy and unity, which can make impossible things come true. At first sight. Thank you to all of you who then believed in this collection and donated to enable children from Mykolaiv and Kherson to study. This is your big investment in their future. And that means the future of our country,» notes the editor-in-chief of UP.

The situation with shelters in Mykolaiv

As you know, the Mykolaiv city government plans to start 29 schools for full-time and mixed education from September, but the final decision must be made by the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration.

It should be noted that last year it was also reported about the intention to start face-to-face training in Mykolaiv, but as a result, it never happened. The mayor of Mykolaiv then explained this by the fact that the city is still at risk of being hit by ballistic missiles.

What about children's education in Mykolaiv?

Mykolaiv schoolchildren have been studying online since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. Although the government, with the help of donors and the state, is actively setting up shelters in educational institutions, which sometimes causes indignation among the townspeople.

The refusal of children to go to school is a guarantee of their personal safety, because Mykolaiv is still in the zone of possible ballistic damage from the Russian military, says Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of preparing shelters and resuming education in schools when the Armed Forces move the front line.

Earlier, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim explained why schools in Mykolaiv still work online: educational institutions are targets for the Russian army, since at the beginning of a full-scale war, they usually housed military personnel.

It is worth noting that earlier in response to the information request of NikVesti regarding the criteria that educational institutions of Mykolaiv must meet in order to resume full-time work in the 2023-2024 academic year, the city's education department reported: schools will work in accordance with the recommendations of the State Emergency Service and the Sanitary Regulations approved by the Ministry Health Care. The first is the availability of shelter, and the second is drinking water at school.

In the next few years, the authorities plan to equip 54 shelters in kindergartens, schools and lyceums in Mykolaiv.

In general, the outflow of students was recorded in Mykolaiv schools this year. Compared to the last academic year, the number of students decreased by 3,300.

Lithuania plans to build a shelter school in the Mykolaiv region by the end of 2024. Similar underground institutions should appear in 5 regions of Ukraine.

As of February 2024, shelters were installed in 31% of schools in Mykolaiv. There are 21 institutions of general secondary education: 10 lyceums and 11 gymnasiums.

Where in the Mykolaiv Oblast is there a full-time education?

57 educational institutions were allowed to work offline in the Mykolaiv region. Most of them are schools of Voznesensk and Pervomaisk districts. In addition, 94 schools work mixed, that is, children study offline in a certain sequence, for example, one week after another. Another 277 educational institutions work online.

It was also possible to organize an offline educational process in front-line Ochakiv, which is still in the zone of damage by enemy anti-aircraft missiles. There is a mixed form of education.

According to the monitoring of the Department of Education of the Mykolaiv City Council, 65% of schoolchildren want to study full-time.