Over 4,000 educational institutions in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, leaving millions of children without access to education. With the "Safe School" project Olena Zelenska Foundation creates safe, resilient shelters in educational institutions. By transforming cold school basements into modern shelters, we bring children back to classrooms, protect their fundamental right to access education, and build spaces where underground learning can safely become a temporary normalcy.
In Ukraine today, education is entirely dependent on safety infrastructure. No school or kindergarten can operate offline unless it has a functional, certified bomb shelter. Building a reliable shelter is a single, non-negotiable solution to bring children back to school. Without it educational process turns into a series of constant, unpredictable disruptions with air alerts and shelling. Over 20,000 educational institutions across Ukraine still need safe, sustainable, modern learning spaces.
Safe School provides safe, fully functional and welcoming shelter spaces where education never stops during alerts. We transform basic basements into modern underground classrooms. Each shelter includes: learning areas for different age groups a recreation and extracurricular activities zone opportunities for individual sessions with a psychologist All facilities are inclusive ensuring safety for all children, including children with disabilities.
Securing educational process directly influences well-being of Ukrainian families and help affected communities rebuild. To date, the Foundation has successfully completed 31 shelters, allowing more than 14,000 children to return to safe, in-person learning across Ukraine. Your donation will allow increasing the number of shelters in frontline areas and vulnerable communities, ensuring Ukraine's future generation remains educated, resilient, and safe.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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