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School grants for an additional 100 educational facilities increase the number of such facilities receiving winter support to 800.
05 December 2024
KYIV, 04 December 2024 – The latest release of school grants will help enhance winter operations for an additional 100 schools, taking the total number supported by UNICEF jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science to eight hundred. This support will help to keep some 488,000 children learning during the coming freezing weeks and months.
The allocation of UAH 290,500 (USD7,000) per school is distributed to support repairs to infrastructure, and the purchase, storage and transportation of heating supplies, as well as upgrades to school canteens where needed.
The schools receiving grants include those offering in-person or blended learning in frontline areas, those educating at least 50 internally displaced children, and schools providing in-person or blended learning that are the only educational facilities available to children in some hromadas.
“This winter is the latest threat to children’s right to education in Ukraine,” said Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Representative to Ukraine. “Educators are doing what they can to keep children learning and these grants will at least bolster their resources at a challenging time,” added Mammadzade.
Children’s right to education has been disrupted for more than 1,000 days since the escalation of the war and previously the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools have been destroyed and damaged by attacks and now lack reliable heating and water services because of decimated energy and water infrastructure.
The grants will improve the resilience of schools across all Oblasts and the latest resources follow on from the 700 schools selected to receive financial support under this programme in October.
The schools were selected by a committee consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), the Ministry of National Unity (the former Ministry of Reintegration), and UNICEF. The financial assistance is a one-time grant, and funds will be disbursed to the 100 educational facilities in time for the start of the next academic term in January 2025.
UNICEF is grateful to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the German Development Bank (KFW) and the Government of Norway for providing the financial resources for the school winterization programme.
“Children are desperate to be back in safe classrooms with their friends and to have some resemblance of normalcy in their young lives,” said Mammadzade. “We are extremely grateful to all partners for their investment in the education and development of children across Ukraine,” added Mammadzade.
UNICEF continues to call for attacks on and the military use of schools to cease, as well as the protection of other civilian infrastructure on which children rely, including health facilities, social services, water and energy networks.
Notes to editors:
For schools seeking more information, please contact the UNICEF ‘Tell Us How It Is’ hotline at 0800 600 017, option 3 (school grants). The hotline operates Monday to Friday 08:00–18:00.
The full list of schools benefiting from this initiative is available at the link.
Media contacts
Toby Fricker
Chief Advocacy and Communications
UNICEF Ukraine
Email: tfricker@unicef.org