The project “Chest for Shelter” was launched by our organization last year, when we understood that children spend a lot of time in shelters. Not all schools can provide education in bomb shelters and organize leisure activities there so that they would distract children from stress and anxiety.
From a thousand applications we have selected 30 schools which are closest to the frontline or to the border with the aggressor, and which study onsite or in a hybrid format: Sumy, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts.
The concept of the “Chests” belongs to the head of the psychological department Oksana Makarenko, and the contents were designed together with children’s family psychologist Svitlana Roiz. So, this is not just a box with toys, but a trauma-oriented approach and resilience practices. The “Chests” contain objects that are aimed at different senses: tactile, visual, logical.
“For instance, the blankets are used by the children not only to get warm, but also for games, so that they would feel these boundaries of their body and protection. And when the children fumble with the anti-stress toys in their hands, they automatically return to the here and now moment, and can leave the state of stress and anxiety. We also added practical games, designed by Svitlana Royz, which are available free of charge on our website, as well as books, that were selected especially for the “Chests for Shelters” by the Laboratory of children’s reading “BaraBooka”. They are very kind, funny, interesting, so that children in the shelters could shift their focus to something pleasant and light,” says head of Smart Osvita, Halyna Tytysh.
The Chests also have the well-known board games: Jenga, UNO, Dobble which are aimed at cohesion, so that children could have a good time in the shelter. We even added some simple small things that schools need: flashlights, pencils, crayons, and white paper.
“We might think that children have got used to staying in the shelter and do not need support anymore. Children really adapt to any conditions, even most difficult. But they always need to feel that they are surrounded by reliable adults who can support them, guide their activity, provide help if needed. We studied stress coping techniques that are used by the children in shelters. And the contents of the chest are universal and could be used either as additional materials or to just entertain different children. Schoolchildren can choose something to cope with their stress through body and movement, social interaction in games and through intellectual channels (by reading books, engaging in creative activities, creating their personal protected space from jigsaw mats and blankets). Adults just need to offer the children a choice or to guide them to a specific object,” says Svitlana Roiz.
Overall, the contents of each chest are designed for more than a hundred children of different ages.
The pilot schools that received their “Chests” in 2023 say that when they are not in shelters, the psychologists are also using these resources in their work.
The “Smart Osvita” team is grateful to Svitlana Roiz, “BaraBooka“, Embassy of Ukraine in Switzerland, and our partners who helped to finance the procurement.
We would also like to express our gratitude to the logistical company “Nova Post” which provided free delivery of the “Chests” to the schools.
We hope that “Chests of Shelters” will be a useful resource both for the students and for the teachers. And to all those who have already filled the application to receive their chests, we would like to announce that 70 more “Chests” will soon be completed, so you can expect to receive emails with good news from “Smart Osvita” soon.
The project is implemented thanks to the funds received from Mr. Edmond Nielsen’s legacy.
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