Generator Will Help Ukraine’s Younger Generation Get Back to Class

Operation Pace, RE:ACT’s humanitarian mission supporting the people of Ukraine, is prioritising the delivery of food, medicine, and infrastructure supplies. The provision of electrical generators to schools and hospitals has been a game-changer for some communities ravaged by the conflict. This is Iryna Voloschenko’s story.

The small town of Makariv is only 60kms West of Kyiv, and just days after the war began the population of just 9,500 people found themselves at the heart of the conflict.

Locals were forced to either flee their homes or seek shelter underground as the Bucha region rapidly became the epicentre of the war.

Iryna Voloschenko, the Head of the Education Department for Makariv village and the surrounding territory, could do nothing as her schools and kindergartens were either destroyed or badly damaged by shelling.

When the fighting was over, and she was finally able to take stock of the situation, a horrified Iryna discovered that 17 of the region’s 24 secondary schools had been damaged.

They were also 12 pre-school establishments and kindergartens before the war. Eight of these were now damaged and two were completely destroyed. 300 children had nowhere to go to kindergarten.

Iryna says they did their best to accommodate them elsewhere and to try and begin the almost impossible task of finding the people power and resources to make emergency repairs to the damaged buildings.

“It’s very difficult because there is little money left for community projects such as this, so we must look for volunteers to help us make the repairs,” explained Iryna.

She added: “When you go in there and see how everything is damaged. The buildings are destroyed and the only thing you can hear is the wind. Some of the schools’ principals have just cried. It is so hard for them to see this without tears. Many have worked there for more than 25 years.”

Through our partners, the Ukrainian Education Platform (UEP), RE:ACT was approached to see if we could help. At the top of Iryna’s list was restoring the electricity supply so that she could commence the repair efforts. A generator was quickly sourced and purchased in Poland by our Operation Pace volunteers and then transported into Ukraine by the UEP.

“We didn’t have electricity for the internet, so it became impossible to enter the damaged establishments into the database. Now we are able to send photographs of the buildings to the ministries so that people know that we have a really difficult situation here,” said Iryna.

She added: “We are so very grateful for RE:ACT’s help. When there is no electricity, and you can’t use your computer or even charge you phone things are very difficult. The generator has helped us a lot. Thank you so much.”

RE:ACT wants to help many more people, like Dr Iryna, both in the UK and overseas. To help us support those most in need, wherever and whenever disaster strikes, please consider donating to support out work.