Olena Zelenska Foundation, together with the KSE Foundation, began equipping shelters in schools and kindergartens

Five thousand school and kindergarten students from Poltava, Chernihiv, Kirovograd, and Dnipropetrovsk regions will soon have comfortable shelters in case of air raid alerts. The first shelters in educational institutions are being set up by the Olena Zelenska Foundation together with the charitable fund of the Kyiv School of Economics – the KSE Foundation. The main goal of the project is to return as many children as possible to offline learning and education.

"Today, over 3,000 Ukrainian schools either have no shelters or have shelters that are unsuitable for students to stay in for extended periods of time. As a result, children cannot attend offline classes. The Olena Zelenska Foundation has allocated US $500,000 dollars to renovate at least seven shelters. It's vital to ensure educational institutions in Ukraine meet safety standards and provide a comfortable and cozy environment. Therefore, we continue to involve philanthropists in the project who are willing to invest in the safety of Ukrainian children," said Nina Horbachova, the director of the Olena Zelenska Foundation.

"In the shelters that we are renovating, children should feel both physically and psychologically comfortable. A student's stay in a shelter shouldn't resemble a horror movie. There should be ventilation, bright lighting, light-colored walls, soft benches, and an internet connection. We don't want to turn the dormitories into full-fledged classrooms, but we want to renovate and equip a larger number of dormitories," said Svitlana Denysenko, director of the KSE Foundation.

In the facilities selected jointly by the KSE Foundation and the Olena Zelenska Foundation, the following works will be carried out: installation of ventilation, replacement of electrical wiring, installation of primary and emergency lighting, flooring and sewage system.

The renovation of the first seven shelters by the Olena Zelenska Foundation and the KSE Foundation will begin in educational institutions of Kremenchuk, Kropyvnytskyi, Kryvyi Rih, Nizhyn, and other cities, where offline classes can be resumed this academic year if they have shelters that meet the State Emergency Service requirements.

Every school or kindergarten that needs a shelter can apply for one. To do so, they need to fill out a form at the link: https://foundation.kse.ua/safe-education.