On May 5th 2023, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the new “Education and science” direction on the UNITED24 fundraising platform.
“The “Education and Science” direction is incredibly important, because as of today nearly 3000 educational facilities have already been destroyed by russian forces. They target them deliberately. It will take much work to ensure the safety of our children in the current circumstances, including during distance learning. But we are prepared for it, emphasized Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The first ambassador in this direction was the British scientist and winner of the Nobel prize in philology and medicine, Sir Paul Nurse.
He had gone to Ukraine and personally witnessed the scale of destruction with his own eyes. In particular, he visited a school in Buzova village, which is in Kyiv region. The village suffered greatly from the russian forces’ attempts to capture Kyiv in spring of 2022.
“It’s a wreck. It’s a complete wreck. There has been restoration, but it needs so much more work. When I was walking ‘round, there was lots of rubble, and I found this [picture]. It’s a child’s painting. In it is a mother cradling a baby, surrounded by sunflowers, important for Ukraine, surrounded by these white birds. This was such a contrast to the destruction and the rubble. This is a statement of the future,” he described his impressions.
The school in Buzova became the first object to be restored as part of the “Education and science” direction of UNITED24. Thanks to the efforts of the platform’s ambassadors and donors, the fundraiser for this educational facility was successfully finished on June 3rd 2023.
On August 5, 2023, Sir Paul Nurse joined the Game4Ukraine charity match at Stamford Bridge in London. The Nobel laureate, together with Board Member of Chelsea F.C., Barbara Charone, awarded special medals to the match participants. Each medal contains a piece of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynsky school, which will be rebuilt thanks to the charity game. They were presented as a sign of gratitude for helping 415 Ukrainian children return to school.
But there are still hundreds of school across Ukraine in need of restoration.
