UCU and the charitable foundation savED on June 18 conducted a partners’ meeting to discuss common values and projects implemented as part of their cooperation and to plan educational activities for next year.

In April 2024, Ukrainian Catholic University and the charitable foundation savED signed a memorandum of cooperation to create new possibilities for youth and teachers from all over Ukraine, in particular elementary and high school students, teachers, and principals from small towns and villages near the frontlines.

In the first year of exchanges, educational visits to the UCU campus were organized for 90 high schoolers from de-occupied cities and villages of the Chernihiv, Kyiv, and Mykolaiv regions. At the end of June, another 30 students will visit the university.

The first visit of students from the Mykolaiv Region, June 2024

During the visit, Anna Novosad, co-founder and strategic director of the charitable foundation savED, talked about the organization’s activities, work to renew access to education for elementary and high school students, and the creation of centers for extracurricular activities, called “Beehives,” and she thanked UCU for the partnership.

“Some of the team members of savED are graduates of Ukrainian Catholic University, and we think this has significantly helped us develop our cooperation,” stated Anna Novosad. “Partnership with UCU is not a narrow proposition of access to higher education. It’s access to a community, to something wider in a social sense.”

 

Anna Novosad

 

Khrystyna Kashchuk, UCU graduate, is head of an annual educational program for teenagers to develop small communities, UActive, which is hosted by savED. This program not only provides students with knowledge and skills; it also allows them to get hands-on experience in creating real projects for their community and already to become leaders of change.

“Thanks to the university, I have a positive experience of community, and I want to share it. Unfortunately, in those communities where we work, the children have gone through very difficult trials, far beyond their age. The educational program for teenagers, UActive, is unique, because we have a community where they always support one another,” emphasized Khrystyna Kashchuk.

Khrystyna Kashchuk

Recently, UCU has also for the first time accepted for the certificate program 39 teachers and leaders of the UActive program from de-occupied schools of the Chernihiv, Kyiv, and Mykolaiv regions. The teachers had the opportunity to attend lectures and discuss the importance of education, its role in rebuilding the country, psychological resilience, and the creation of a safe environment, even if there is danger all around. They also had an opportunity to learn real skills and creative communication and to find out about the 11 virtues of a leader from UCU professors.

As part of the cooperative effort, the participants got acquainted with the university community, felt its atmosphere, in particular by lodging on campus and interacting with our students and staff.

Visit to the UCU campus

Also as part of the partnership, together with the UCU Library they created the project “I want to read,” thanks to which they gathered and distributed 4275 books for pupils in schools and youth centers revived by the foundation.

UCU Rector Taras Dobko thanked savED for the partnership and also for research in the field of education which it conducts in frontline areas.

“The research which you conducted, ‘War and education,’ helped me in educational diplomacy during conferences abroad. Your work is important. I am glad that our cooperation is not only for one time. We are building long-term plans,” noted Taras Dobko.

Teachers visit UCU as part of the cooperation with savED

UCU and savED plan to expand their work with pupils and teachers, to establish an educational program for the foundation’s team, to conduct joint research about Ukrainian schoolchildren, and to create opportunities for the best graduates of UActive to study at UCU and receive financial support.

Addendum

savED is a charitable foundation involved in reviving life in Ukrainian communities that have suffered, through educational and infrastructure solutions, and also social projects. The foundation furnishes shelters, “Beehive” educational centers, repairs school buildings damaged by the war, furnishes temporary educational spaces, and also involves teenagers in rebuilding and developing their own communities through the program UActive.

The foundation started implementing its first projects in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in 2022 and is now continuing comprehensive work there, and also in the Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions. These are frontline and de-occupied communities, communities near the border and those which need the most help or where revival is not moving very quickly. In total, since 2022, it has managed to provide help to more than 60 thousand children in Ukraine, in more than 70 communities and more than 100 population centers.