While cities in Ukraine are being shelled day and night, LWF renovates school basements in Ichnya and Bobrovytsia to serve as bomb shelters. This is to make schools safe again for students to attend in person.
Teacher Natalia Koval leads an online class in textile handiwork at the Ichnya school of Vasilchenko in the Ichnya municipality of Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. The school is currently empty of its students, with classes taught online only until secure bomb shelters can be restored at the school. All photos: LWF/Albin Hillert
LWF has started construction work in Ichnya school
(LWI) - Months of Russian military occupation in the spring of 2022 has left Ichnya municipality in Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine, a different place: Army checkpoints mark the way into the municipality, military bunkers and fortified junctions remain along the roads and damaged buildings testify to the physical impact of the war in villages across the region.
With the war still ongoing, near-daily air raid alerts call people across the country to seek shelter, and as the risk of air strikes persists, Ukrainian authorities have decided schools in the country cannot run onsite classes unless they have a functional bomb shelter. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) now works with the municipalities in Ichnya and Bobrovytsia – both in Chernihiv Oblast – to renovate school basements so the buildings are safe for students to return to in-person classes.
A group of students arrive at the Ichnya school of Vasilchenko. While classes cannot take place onsite, students pass by occasionally, for example to pick up learning materials. Photo: LWF/ Albin Hillert
“This work is already underway, and we plan to scale up our engagement as LWF in Ukraine in the coming months,” explains LWF Interim Team Leader Bhoj Khanal, noting that the LWF intends to provide services in the areas of Education; shelter; social cohesion; mental health and psychosocial support; and preparing for the winter.
“Our target is to support some 50,000 people within six months’ time,” Khanal says.
Shelter for 1,000 people
School director Luidmyla Kutchovera of the Ichnya school of Vasilchenko – one currently supported by the LWF – describes her first reaction as Russian military approached Ichnya.
“Already in 2018, there was an explosion at an ammunition storage not so far from here. When we started hearing explosions this time… you see I am not a very emotional person, I went to the school and started making coffee and tea for the teachers as usual in the morning.” Luidmyla says she wound up spending 10 days working day and night to manage the situation at the school, as Russian military forced its way through the town.
School director Luidmyla Kutchovera (right) and Bhoj Khanal (left), team leader of the LWF in Ukraine, connect to an online English class. Photo: LWF/ Albin Hillert
Today, although the region is no longer occupied, the school is empty of its 543 students ranging from ages 6-16, as the school lacks functional bomb shelters. LWF supports the municipality of Ichnya to meet this requirement, by renovating the school basements so they comply with government requirements. As of November, this year, the shelters are intended to accommodate up to 1,000 people, meaning not only capacity for this school’s own students and staff, but in case of emergency also hundreds of students and other people from the surrounding area.
More than a place to study
Kutchovera says she thinks of the school not only as a place for teaching specific subjects, but that it has a bigger role to play in these times.
“The school helps students to cope with this changing situation,” the director says. “This is easier when we can meet face to face. The teachers are able to pick up the mood of the students and give support when it is needed.”
At the moment, we know that many students are afraid to leave their home, even to come to school, but we hope when we have our shelter in place and can start having classes onsite again, that it will feel safe for everyone.
Luidmyla KUTCHOVERA, school director, Ichnya
“At the moment, we know that many students are afraid to leave their home, even to come to school, but we hope when we have our shelter in place and can start having classes onsite again, that it will feel safe for everyone,” she adds.
Renovation underway at the Ichnya school of Vasilchenko in the Ichnya municipality of Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine — home to 540 students (boys and girls) aged 6-16. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
14-year-old Oleksandr – one of Ichnya’s many students who have experienced both onsite and online schooling in the past six months – hopes for life to go back to how it was before. “My favorite pastime is to ride my bike in the street with my friends,” he says. “Being in school is better than studying from home, because I get to meet my friends.”
And while work to provide functional shelters is now underway across different schools in the region, Ichnya Mayor Olena Buturlym stresses that “at times of war, we need to be aware that local authorities and the government simply do not have enough money to solve all the needs of their communities.”
“Our main hope in this is that we can cooperate with organizations like the LWF to respond to all these needs,” she says.
