NGO “Smart Osvita” sent the first chests to 15 schools within the framework of the “Chest for Shelter” project.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian students have been forced to hide in school shelters during air raids. In such conditions, educators conduct lessons and try to organize children’s leisure time. A team of experts from the NGO “Smart Osvita,” together with family and child psychologist Svitlana Roiz created a resource chest to make staying in shelters more comfortable for children and educators.
The chests included things that will help children cope with anxiety: anti-stress toys, karemat puzzles, origami schemes, lighting devices, warming blankets, board games, a selection of books specially created for children of different ages, coloring pages on patriotic themes, and more. This project is a pilot version, where the first 15 schools will be able to test the composition of the chests, and Smart Education will analyze the needs and, if necessary, change the contents for the subsequent batches.
The organization created three sets of chests for shelter: elementary school, middle school, and senior school children. Each chest is designed to shelter one hundred children at a time.
Svitlana Roiz says about the selection of materials for the chest in the shelter: “We analyzed the stress coping strategies used by children and offer what will be useful for stabilizing their emotional state. Moreover, these things are “tools” that can be universal. For example, blankets and karemat puzzles – not only to keep warm, but also to create your own “protected place,” sensory and tactile balls – not only for massage and returning the feeling of contact with the body, but also stability, the feeling of contact with reality.
In the chest, we also collected materials for the visual channel, motor activity, materials for creativity, and books. And also therapeutic tools: breathing cards and materials for regulating emotions. The most important thing when experiencing traumatic events and stress is to be able to influence something, take action, and control something. Everything in this set is for the child to regain control and a sense of security.”
Halyna Tytysh, head of the NGO “Smart Osvita,” says: “We did not announce this project widely. However, we received dozens of comments and messages after the pre-holiday message on the organization’s Facebook page that we were waiting for school applications to receive specially assembled shelter boxes. Now we are working to support all the hundreds of schools that have contacted us.”
The following worked on the chests in the shelter:
– the team of the NGO “Smart Osvita”;
– psychologist Svitlana Roiz;
– Children’s Reading Laboratory “BaraBooka” of the National Center “Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” headed by Tetiana Stus;
– illustrator Lidiia Golosko.
The project “Chest for Shelter” is carried out by the NGO “Smart Osvita” with the support of ChildFund, the NGO “Eastern Europe Foundation” and Terre des Hommes.
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