Today is the first day of school in Ukraine. Eighteen hundred Jewish children return to school after a summer sheltering in bunkers and taking refuge in other towns to which they have fled.
Many students come from underprivileged backgrounds, and school serves as a critical support system for them and their families. Recognizing the desperate need for these children to return to school, to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, as much as their educational needs, the Chabad rabbis and Jewish Relief Network Ukraine were determined to open the doors of as many schools as possible on September 1st.
The Ukrainian government mandated that all schools have accessible bomb shelters complete with generators, furniture, food and water. JRNU worked hard to disguise the ominous shelters as colorful and welcoming classrooms or play areas to avoid further traumatizing the children. Schools in Kyiv, Odessa, Zhytomyr, Vinitsa, Bila Tserkva, Chernivtsi, Kamianske, Kryvyi Rih, Cherkasy, among others, opened in person, while others are hoping to open soon; the students attend online classes in the meantime.
