More than 400 schoolchildren of the Sheptytsky gymnasium in Lviv region will celebrate the first bell at their school in safe conditions. Thanks to the contribution of the Victoria Gardens shopping center, which is part of the real estate portfolio of the Dragon Capital company, the charity fund of the Kyiv School of Economics completed the construction of a shelter for children and teachers.
A total of 300 square meters of storage was renovated: in the basement of the school, waterproofing was installed on the problematic sides of the foundation, a concrete floor screed was poured, ventilation ducts were installed, electrical wiring was replaced, all surfaces were treated against fungus and painted, sewage networks were dismantled from the floor, and bathrooms were newly equipped.
The height of the room was also increased by 40 cm – now the size of the storage room meets the standards, and children are in comfortable conditions during air alarms.
“When the students’ parents saw our old “shelter”, they were scared. Then they found out about the program from the KSE Foundation and we applied. The storage room was built very quickly, despite the fact that the room was problematic – there was a swamp instead of a floor, constant dampness, clay, groundwater flooded the basement. Now there is a concrete screed and waterproofing, high-quality ventilation. The height of the basement was only 1.9 meters, and the room itself was divided into 4 sections. And now our shelter will simultaneously accommodate all 434 children who will study from the next school year. We thank you very much for everything you do for the children,” said Father Taras Baiovsky, the school’s director.
At the beginning of the full-scale war, Lviv residents accepted a large number of internally displaced persons from hot spots, and the Sheptytsky gymnasium was no exception. A humanitarian base was organized in the school premises and conditions were created for the temporary stay of evacuated Ukrainians. Now the educational institution is also ready to provide shelter to displaced persons who were forced to leave their homes due to Russians blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP dam. Some of the children who were accepted by the gymnasium after February 24 decided to stay in Lviv and continue their studies here – admission to the Sheptytskyi gymnasium is based on a competition, and schoolchildren from Mykolaiv and Mariupol successfully passed it.
“Back in the spring of 2022, a family from Mariupol came to us – Ihor and his mother spent several weeks in a basement in Mariupol under mass fire before they were able to evacuate. It was very difficult for them, the boy had been through a lot in these weeks. In recent months, the child has opened up, even started to smile. But it was a long way. It’s a very good family, my mother is putting all her efforts into setting up life in a new place, and Ihor, despite all the horrors of the war, passed the competition last year and entered our 10th grade,” says Taras Bayovskyi.
Immigrants from Mykolaiv and Kyiv region are also now studying at the gymnasium: a year ago, an enemy projectile flew into the school in Mykolaiv, where eighth-grader Andriy was studying, and today Andriy was able to take first place in the linguistic Olympiad and the internal mathematics Olympiad. And seventh-grader Vira from the Kyiv region took first place at the Snow Queen Cup figure skating championship!
The Sheptytsky school began its work in 1991 – it is the first Greek-Catholic gymnasium in Ukraine.
Father Taras Baiovskyi became the director of the school already during the war. He is a school chaplain and social educator, teaches Christian ethics. The school chaplain not only acts as a teacher, but also conducts liturgies and reads prayers together with the children – his task is to mentor and spiritually accompany the students. Parents and schoolchildren speak of the educational institution as a real family community, where strict requirements for learning are combined with a friendly atmosphere.
Now the school family can feel safe, and our KSE Foundation team sincerely thanks TRC Victoria Gardens and Dragon Capital for supporting the “PROTECTION: Safe Education” project, which is very important for Ukraine.
We will remind you that thanks to the Victoria Gardens shopping center, another school shelter was set up in Lviv region – hundreds of students of Lviv Lyceum No. 46 were able to return to safe education.
Make your child’s school safer with KSE Foundation! You can apply for a shelter by filling out the form at the link: https://foundation.kse.ua/safe-education. On the same page, you can make a charitable contribution to improve the safety of schools in Ukraine.