Inspiring Kindergarten Students
Project Ollie delivers books and other supplies to Lviv students
by Jing Li
School is in session, including in Ukraine where children and families are still seeped in the realities of life during wartime. Many have lost loved ones. Even more have lost their homes.
In the past few months, our Project Ollie team partnered with local educator, Oksana Boiko, to support a public kindergarten school called “Fairytale World” in Lviv region. Oksana is an English teacher from Kupiansk-Uzlovoi and a long-time friend and colleague of Ollie co-founder Jing Li, from her time serving in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Fairytale World is a local public school for children who are four to six years old. In Ukraine, these schools are called “kindergarten” instead of preschool, similar to what we call pre-kindergarten (pre-K) or transitional kindergarten (TK) in the US. This age group of children is particularly unusual: All were born either just before or since the war started. They have never known what it is like to live during peaceful times.
This school serves approximately 240 children, including kids who come from families displaced from their homes due to the war and those whose parents are currently serving in the military. Most of these families are from eastern and southern Ukraine - Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro regions. Some of the children are war orphans. Many of them have special learning needs, including PTSD, autism, hyperactivity, and other psychological conditions.
Here, too, the threat of war looms. Local budgets cannot cover all the needs to make the learning process effective for all the kids. Teachers and local families pulled together to repair the building, making the playgrounds and educational areas safe and interactive. Missile attacks are not uncommon in this territory, even though it feels remote from the front line area.
Parents have moved here, seeking a safer environment for their children. And they have worked together to support the school, painting classrooms and doing other work for the facility. Oksana is always on the lookout for child-friendly furniture and has contributed a wardrobe, ottomans and many buckets in case the school’s water is shut down. Money and supplies for learning remain scarce.
Working hand in hand with local educators this past summer, Project Ollie asked what the Lviv teachers needed. At the top of the list were books, educational toys, educational supplies, and art supplies for the kindergarten students. Project Ollie also underwrote the costs of a new printer for teachers, which will help them continue to create printouts and lesson materials for their students. The items funded through this project enables the Fairytale World teachers to provide a richer curriculum, including teaching the children about different professions, role-playing, learning road signs and other valuable life skills. And with Project Ollie’s support, teachers have also created a “patriotic corner” in their classroom, an important space where children can learn about Ukrainian traditions, culture, geography and national symbols.
Without Project Ollie, teachers and parents may not have been able to scrape together enough money to purchase any of these materials for the students this September. For this, we thank all Project Ollie supporters.
We hope to continue to provide more materials in the months to come. Older students from the Kupiansk region have asked for laptops and power banks so they can keep learning even in the conditions of total blackouts; we’re working on raising more funds for these.
Happy learning!
Thank you for your support!
Let students and teachers in Ukraine know they are not forgotten! Help support learning. Donate to Project Ollie today!
With our whole hearts, we are deeply grateful for the support you have provided the students and teachers in Ukraine. Every dollar goes directly to the students and teachers. (Project Ollie is run entirely on a volunteer basis.)
Each donation brings a little brightness into the lives of children and teachers.
Over and over, the recipients of Project Ollie’s gifts have shared their gratitude–and surprise.
Even knowing that people, a world away, remember and care for them has touched their hearts and warmed their spirits.
You are making a difference. And so, again, thank you.
If you can provide additional support to the students of Ukraine, please use this donation link to Project Ollie here. We are a federally recognized 501c3. Also, spreading awareness of our mission goes a long way. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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