Knowledge to overcome fear: Giving Ukrainian school children back their future

In the 2025–2026 academic year, we undertook educational work in five Oblasts: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Kharkiv. We are providing comprehensive support to help pupils make up for educational losses by renovating school shelters and strengthening the psychological resilience of children, teachers, and parents.

Matviey Shemonaiev is a Year 9 pupil from Toretsk. He moved with his family to a safer place, but he continues to study online. The change of environment has affected his studies, so he is now working hard to catch up on missed material. Matviey attends additional free maths classes, where he seeks understanding, not memorisation.

"It's not enough to know the theory by heart; you also need to understand how it can be applied in a specific situation. I’m learning to ask myself questions and organise my knowledge so that it’s always readily available. Even artificial intelligence comes to the rescue,” he says.

His mother, Maryna Shemonaieva, admits that she worries most about her son’s future. However, when Matviey started attending extra classes, she began to view difficulties differently.

“Our task is to identify the gaps and view them as opportunities for growth,” says the mother of the Year 9 pupil.

Tutors—who have undergone special training—help children catch up on lost knowledge in maths, Ukrainian, and English.

Serhiy joined our team of tutors in the Sumy Oblast. As a maths and IT teacher, he has noticed that knowledge isn’t absorbed in stressful environments. That’s why he uses psychosocial support techniques during lessons.

“Instead of the usual exercise break, we do special social-emotional learning exercises. This allows the children to relax, if only for a moment. We are learning how to respond appropriately to anxiety because these skills are now as important as knowing how to multiply,” he explains.

Teachers are often the first adults a child can turn to for help. Viktoriia Sema, Child Protection Coordinator at People in Need, notes:

“We teach teachers not to be left alone to deal with difficult situations. Referral training provides them with the necessary tools to react positively to difficulty. If a child becomes withdrawn or is going through a crisis, the teacher knows how to act and which specialists or organisations to contact to ensure they receive professional and timely support.”

In Kharkiv, safety dictates school life. That is why real school life now takes place in equipped shelters and underground classrooms. Kateryna Ovcharenko, a Ukrainian language teacher, works at a lyceum in Kholodna Hora. Through our work, secondary school pupils here have been able to return from online learning to safe, equipped classrooms.

“We missed being able to look each other in the eye and exchange ideas in person, rather than through a screen. When the children first entered these underground classrooms, it was a real celebration. We support one another: I support the children, and they support me.”

We recently brought together over 80 educators for a practical conference to share experiences. Representatives from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and the Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development joined the discussion. This helped take the debate on overcoming educational losses to a new level.

Education Expert Marharyta Chaika notes: “This conference helped us to listen to teachers and adapt our plans for the 2026–2027 academic year. We continue to support communities and ensure that the methodologies we have developed become part of the daily work of Ukrainian schools.”

Educational losses are not just unsolved equations or missed lessons. They also represent lost socialisation and a sense of stability. Our work demonstrates that, when schools, parents, and international partners collaborate, even a shelter can become an environment conducive to growth.

Our shared goal is to enable every child, despite the war, to learn and build their future.