Help Ukrainian 11th-graders
For education, this year will be the hardest in the history of modern Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, armed Russian occupiers took away the childhood of every Ukrainian child, bombed and destroyed all of their dreams, and shot dead our young people's plans to enter universities.
Millions of children from Ukraine became refugees, lost their homes, their usual routine, and some were left without relatives. All of them are now facing profound darkness of uncertainty; no one knows what will happen next, and what the future holds.
We, ZNOUA, the leader in EIT (ZNO) preparation in Ukraine, are striving to help such students continue their education, attend classes online, study on to distract from the new terrible reality, and be able to enter universities.
With this letter, we appeal to you: please do help our 9-11th graders not to interrupt or put their studies on hiatus, and to survive in this difficult war. We have a great team of talented and highly-motivated teachers, and we ask you for financial help to pay for their work and ensure our children's future. We are ready to completely abolish tuition fees if we can at least cover the minimum salaries of our teachers, who work under sirens and heavy shelling, even from the cities that are currently suffering the most.
- 100,000 UAH per month could allow about 1,500 of this year's graduates to continue their education and exam preparation with our teachers;
- 200,000 UAH per month could help to provide proper exam preparation for over 3,000 children.
- 1,000,000 UAH per month could enable 20,000 11th-graders to successfully complete this academic year and to prepare for their school-leaving and university admission exams.
Every day our teachers receive dozens of stories and messages from students and their parents with questions that unfortunately cannot be answered for now. We want to share some of these stories with you, because we know that the whole civilized world now shares the pain of Ukraine.
Please take a moment to read some of our children's stories
Here is the story of 16-year-old Natalia, she dreams of becoming a lawyer to help other people defend their rights. Starting from September, Natalia has been profoundly studying the Ukrainian language and History in order to enter the desired university. She is a very caring, active and responsible girl, and she used to always message our teachers several times a day asking questions on the subjects mentioned above, as well as providing a lot of valuable feedback. Ever since February 25, she has been silent for morethan 3 weeks, not even appearing online at all.
Our teachers were very worried because they knew that Natalia lived near Kyiv, where the Russian occupiers were massacring civilians. Three weeks of silence - and finally Natalia got in touch, called one of our teachers, spoke for only a few minutes, crying. In those few minutes of conversation, the girl said that she had survived the hell of continuous shelling hiding in an underground shelter, and only now she is relatively safe to get up to the attic of the house to catch proper internet connection to join our webinars and to continue her exam preparation. She really wants to study and enter university when the war is over.
And here is the story of Olga from the city of Vorzel, where the Russian troops staged a real genocide. As her family tried to leave the city in a convoy of 9 cars, they fled under fire and miraculously survived. Olga managed to move abroad to Poland. Now she is safe, studying at a Polish school. Before the war, the girl dreamed of becoming an architect. Now it is difficult for her to study, she hardly understands Polish and really wants to enter a Ukrainian university after the war.
Seventeen-year-old Kyrylo from Mariupol says that his house got bombed, and the rest just burned down to ashes, and both shops owned by his parents were completely destroyed by shelling. They managed to flee to the city of Dnipro, and he really wants to continue studying Mathematics, but currently his family does not have any financial means to support him in this.
We have been receiving such stories almost every day for a month now. Children do need our help and support.
Our courageous teachers have spent several weeks of hell in underground bomb shelters and fragile basements of their own houses, surviving under heavy shelling. Some of them managed to leave Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kyiv and other dangerous places, but others are still stuck in gruesome and dangerous environments. Fleeing from the Russian occupiers, our teachers took only the essential things, pets and their laptops to be able to continue working with our children, to support them in this difficult time.
Ann, our Biology teacher from Chernihiv, has been hiding in a cold damp basement for 3 days without any food, electricity, or communication. She and her mother were finally able to find a car to leave the city, as halfway, in a very dangerous area, the car suddenly broke down. Everyone just sat, prayed and waited for their death to come. Luckily, they were eventually picked up by volunteers delivering humanitarian aid. Ann is safe now, and really wants to continue working to help and support all the students who need it.
Information for reference
ZNOUA has been helping Ukrainian children to prepare for their final school-leaving and university entrance exams since 2014. During our existence, we have helped more than 10,000 students to enter best Ukrainian universities. This year we have 1,500 students from more than 140 cities and settlements all over the country, and almost a hundred teachers from different parts of Ukraine.
You can support us:
LLC “FASTFORWARD” USREOU 37566464 Registered address: Zoi Haidai str., b. 9-A, flat 59,Kyiv, 04212, Ukraine Actual address: B. Khmelnitskogo str. 32, office 3, Kyiv, 301030, Ukraine Bank details: RAIFFEISEN BANK JSC BIC (bank code): 380805 Bank address: Leskova str.9, KYIV,01011 Ukraine For transfer in USD IBAN:UA673808050000000026008344711 For transfer in EUR IBAN: UA393808050000000026005344714
Sincerely, Dmytro Bondar,
Founder of ZNOUA