GENEVA – More than four years of conflict in eastern Ukraine have taken a devastating toll on the education system, destroying and damaging hundreds of schools and forcing 200,000 girls and boys to learn in militarized environments, amid volatile fighting and dangers due to unexploded weapons of war, said UNICEF on May 4.
“Children are learning in schools with bullet holes in the walls and sandbags in windows, bomb shelters in the basements and shrapnel in school yards,” said UNICEF Ukraine Representative Giovanna Barberis. “The education system in eastern Ukraine has been in the crossfire for more than four years. All sides of the conflict must respect international humanitarian law and ensure that schools are safe places for children to learn.”
Children face dangers due to the proximity of military sites, such as bases, storage facilities and security checkpoints, to schools and kindergartens along both sides of eastern Ukraine’s contact line. The contact line divides government- and non-government-controlled areas, and is where fighting is most severe.
UNICEF and partners have monitored at least eight instances where military and armed groups’ sites are within 500 meters from a kindergarten or school, and two separate locations where schools and these sites are only a few meters apart. Since the beginning of the current school year, UNICEF has monitored six former school buildings that have been occupied or used by military or armed groups.
At least 45 schools have been damaged or destroyed over the last 16 months. This is in addition to more than 700 schools damaged since the conflict began.
Principal Elena Mihatskaya’s Secondary School Number No. 2, in the town of Krasnohorivka, has been shut down since last May after it was hit by a shell that caused massive damage to the roof and multiple classrooms.
“The children are extremely nervous of shelling, and teachers try to calm them down, but it’s hard for them,” she said. “It’s hard for kids to cope because they are nervous and stressed.”
Across eastern Ukraine, UNICEF helps provide psychosocial support and mine risk education to hundreds of thousands of children, youth and caregivers. UNICEF also supports repairs to damaged schools and kindergartens and distributes vital education supplies such as educational kits, furniture sets and sport equipment.
This year, UNICEF has appealed for $23.6 million (U.S.) to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to children and families affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. To date, less than 15 percent of this appeal has been met.
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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) opened its office in Kyiv in 1997. Since then, the children’s agency has been working to improve the lives of children and families throughout Ukraine.
Over the years, UNICEF has increased its support to the government of Ukraine to develop health, nutrition, education and protection programs for children. UNICEF advocates for children’s right to participation and prioritizes actions for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Recognizing that the well-being of children is closely linked to the situation of their mothers, UNICEF also works to help women in Ukraine to better their health and education, and protect their rights.