As the world responds to the war in Ukraine, a UNICEF program delivered with funding from Education Cannot Wait is providing refugee girls and boys with remote learning, safe spaces and a new chance at hope.
By Kent Page
Imagine a world filled with bombings, air sirens, fear and uncertainty, losing your home and fleeing to another country. Now imagine a new school, a new language, a new teacher. This is the sobering reality facing the thousands of refugee children who fled Ukraine to seek safety in neighboring Moldova.
As the world continues to address this terrifying conflict, partners are coming together to provide children displaced by the war with safe learning spaces, remote learning, trained teachers, mental health services and other holistic education supports to preserve hope and opportunity. A program delivered by UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research (MER) has benefited more than 47,000 children across Moldova with holistic education support, reaching host community children, refugees and other vulnerable populations as the nation moved rapidly to respond to the influx of refugees and ensure continued quality education for all.
The program was made possible with a fast-acting First Emergency Response grant from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the UN.
An ordinary February day
Life has not been easy for girls like Nadejda. The 16-year-old fled her home in Berezovca, Ukraine, at the start of the war with her mother and two sisters.
“It was an ordinary February day. I was getting ready for school, but then I saw the news and realized something terrible was happening. I was afraid that the missiles might hit our house too,” says Nadejda.
After living in their basement for four terrifying weeks, Nadejda and her family finally decided to leave their home in March 2022.
“The alarms were ringing day and night,” Nadejda says. “We hid almost every day. When we realized that the situation was getting worse, we decided to move temporarily to Moldova, to my grandparents in Cantemir. They hosted us when we arrived.”
A digital lifeline
Like many other refugee girls and boys, Nadejda was able to continue her studies online with her teachers from back home in Berezovca. In her new school in Cahul, she joined refugees and local children in the EDUTech labs established through the UNICEF program.
The innovative labs are a place of solace, learning and community. In the classes, students take part in non-formal and formal education, fun activities such as music, drawing, sports games, chess competitions, language lessons in Romanian and English, and advanced learning in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Refugee girls and boys are also able to connect to the Ukrainian Ministry of Education platforms to continue their remote learning, following the Ukrainian curriculum in a safe, protective learning environment. Through the investments, teachers have been trained in child protection, inclusive education and gender-based violence prevention. They learn how to provide psychosocial first aid and report cases of child abuse and neglect, and have benefited from trainings in IT and innovative digital learning.
“Now, we’re having an IT lesson here. Last year, we studied web design, and each student did a digital project, developing a website,” says Nadejda. “Here, I have everything, even more than in Ukraine. My classmates accepted me easily into their group. I feel comfortable here.”
When she graduates, Nadejda plans to continue her studies at a university in Moldova or abroad to realize her dream of becoming either a veterinarian or a designer.
Starting over in Moldova’s capital
About 170 kilometers north of Cahul, 10-year-old Darya is finding her own path toward education in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital.
Darya fled the war in Ukraine in the spring of 2022 with her 16-year-old brother and their grandparents. Her parents remained in Odessa while Darya’s grandparents took her and her brother to Chisinau and started looking for a school for their grandkids.
“It is challenging for children to experience this, being separated from their parents and feeling the stress and anxiety of everyone,” says Darya’s grandmother, Alyona. “After arriving in Moldova, I began searching for educational activities where they could communicate with other children, make new friends and feel part of a team.”
Nonformal education activities and catch-up programs
Darya’s first step back to learning happened at the Licurici Puppet Theater, which organized non-formal education activities as part of ECW-funded programming in Moldova, delivered by UNICEF in coordination with partners like the Norwegian Refugee Council and national partners like Step-by-Step Moldova. She also participated in catch-up programs in subjects like math, science and literature for students who were connected remotely to the Ukrainian Ministry of Education learning platforms.
Their second year in Moldova, Darya’s family was able to enroll her at the Dacia Theoretical High School in Chisinau, where 21 other refugee children also study. “On the first day, I didn’t talk to anyone, but then I started to communicate with the girls. Now, I have more than five friends at school,” says Darya.
Learning in Romanian and Ukrainian
Darya is a quick learner. She started studying Romanian through her non-formal education activities. While she continues some studies in Ukrainian online through the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, she has now successfully passed the Romanian language exam and is finding a renewed love of learning at her new school.
“We have diverse cultures, and children exchange views and share experiences,” says Darya’s teacher, Tatyana. “They quickly find common interests. Darya integrated easily. She is quite active and always positive.”
Despite adapting successfully to her new life in Moldova, Darya still remembers her Ukrainian school fondly and misses her friends from home. “If I were to go, I would want to reunite with my best friend,” Darya says. “I wish all Ukrainian children had safe bomb shelters. Even if their schools are destroyed, they will be safe.”
Millions of children have been impacted by the war in Ukraine. More than 2,000 refugee learners are enrolled in the Moldovan National Education system with collaborative support from ECW, UNICEF and other partners during the project implementation period. ECW is calling on world leaders to provide an additional $600 million in funding to support the 250 million crisis-impacted children worldwide whose education has been disrupted by wars, climate change and other protracted crises.
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