Supporting education through Digital Learning Centres
Mariia*, 8 lives together with her mother Iryna*, her father and her 11-year-old brother in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Mariia and her brother are very frightened by the war and the explosions they often hear in their city. This fear affects how they live, how they sleep and how they learn.
“The air alarm howls very often here,” explains Iryna. “Children react differently. When they don’t hear – they don’t know. But when they hear, they talk about it. About how scared they are in general, how they are afraid to sleep, whether they should sleep in their beds or not.”
Due to heavy shelling in October 2022, the family was forced to leave their home for a month. When they came back, they could barely sleep due to the frequent attacks on the city. During periods of heavy shelling, citizens are advised to have at least two walls between them and the street to protect them from the explosion.
“We had a period when our children slept in the corridor for a year and a half,” says Iryna.
Online but off track
Mariia is currently studying in the second grade. But because of the war her entire learning experience has been online. Iryna says that online learning slows down the educational process for her daughter: “She doesn’t meet her teachers. There is no way to control steps. But in the offline learning mode there is a teacher who monitors, answers questions, says what is wrong.”
To fill the gap in Mariia’s education and lack of communication, her mother takes her to the Digital Learning Centre which is run by Save the Children together with partner Posmishka, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. There Mariia can develop her literacy skills, engage in creative activities, as well as play and talk with friends.
Facilitators leading children through a craft project during a creative workshop
The classes at the Digital Learning Centre have been enormously beneficial for Maria, who had really missed live communication.
“There is little communication in her life – it is also solved by visiting the Digital Learning Centre,” says Iryna.
