Irish teacher in Ukraine

Last summer I decided I was going to travel to Kyiv, Ukraine to volunteer. Through a Ukrainian who was teaching in my school I eventually made contact with a charity who were in the middle of renovating a library in a suburb to the north of Kyiv called Vyshhorod. The plan was to help manage the library and maybe run a few English language classes for displaced people trying to settle in the area. After some toing and froing about the risks, I eventually packed my bags, flew to Poland, crossed the border and began my 10 hour train ride to Kyiv. 

In Ukraine 

I arrived on Tuesday and after a couple of days I met up with Olha who runs the charity and her team who would be helping me. At this stage there was a lot of blind faith from both sides, even getting to Kyiv wasn’t straight forward and circumstances change fast as you can understand. We sat down and got chatting and by the end of the conversation it was decided to expand the role that was planned for me, and open it up to children from the area and surrounding towns and villages. By Monday, we had nearly 300 of children ranging in age from 6 to 16 who wanted to take part in classes over the next 5 weeks. What followed was a lot of panicked lesson planning and organising classes of between 3 to 25 kids of varying ages and English abilities in vyshhorrod and 3 other towns and villages to the north of Ukraine. The summer went by in a heartbeat. The team that I spent every day with were incredible, helping me translate for the kids, organise lessons and drive me to places that only a year earlier were occupied by Russians during their attack on Kyiv. More than a few lessons were spent in bomb shelters. Some were very basic basements under apartment buildings while others were fully kitted out schools with classrooms, WiFi and sleeping areas for longer air raid alerts.

What I will do with your donation

Last year I arrived in Kyiv with just my bags and a vague notion of what I’d be doing. This year I plan on returning to run a summer camp again, and with a little help from this fundraiser, with something for the kids that have gone through enormous trauma and suffering for longer than any child should. With the donations raised I plan to buy toys and games for all the kids in the camp, resources for running the camp and if possible to cover some of the travel expenses to get to Kyiv.