Thanks to the contribution of the Victoria Gardens shopping center, the KSE Foundation completed an arrangement of a comfortable shelter worth over half a million UAH.
Lyceum №46 named after Viacheslav Chornovil of the Lviv City Council has been working since 1974 and is preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary: teachers and students hope to meet their anniversary year already with the victory of Ukraine. However, so far 1,200 schoolchildren have been forced to interrupt their studies during air alarms and go down to shelter.
The sponsor of the shelter arrangement in this lyceum was the Victoria Gardens shopping center, which is part of the real estate portfolio of the Dragon Capital company.
The Victoria Gardens shopping center is the largest shopping center in the west of Ukraine and takes an active position in the life of Lviv, initiating or participating in various socially oriented projects. Thus, the shopping mall team was one of the first to join the All-Ukrainian project “Safe Education” from the KSE Foundation. The Victoria Gardens shopping center also sponsored the construction of another shelter in a Lviv school, more details.
The raw basement was not only repaired, but also reconstructed: the height of the shelter was increased to make it comfortable for students and teachers, a concrete floor screed and a concrete section were poured, ventilation was arranged and fire doors were installed. All surfaces were also cleaned of fungus and painted, electrical wiring was replaced and switches, sockets and lights were installed so that there was always light in the shelter.
And most importantly, the repair work allowed to increase the area of the premises that can be used for shelter by 157 square meters, and this is an additional 250 students who can be in the shelter at the same time. Now the shelter can accommodate all 1,200 students and employees of the lyceum.
“The shelter is already completely ready, our fifth-graders were the first to use it. In general, the availability of shelter is a basic need for every school today, without it it is impossible to return to offline lessons. We are grateful that we can continue to teach children in classrooms and provide them with quality education even during the war,” – said director of lyceum Mariia Bogach.
After the start of the full-scale invasion, this lyceum became a refuge for thousands of Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes. Hundreds of people from Severodonetsk, Kramatorsk and Kharkiv lived in the educational institution. The school staff, together with the students, helped them to settle in and prepared hot lunches for them in the school kitchen.
“It was important for all of us to support people as much as we could. We were happy to give them a temporary home. Many of those people will remain in our hearts, now we are united by lots of warm stories. Thanks to Oleksii from Kyiv, who later joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, everyone’s favorite shepherdess Rada appeared in our lyceum. We took care of her, fed her, but in the end we were forced to give her into the good hands of Oleksii’s relatives. Our team and students are always ready to help. Thank you that the charity foundation of the Kyiv School of Economics and our Lviv shopping center Victoria Gardens helped us,” – Mariia Bogach shared with us.
Now, thanks to the shelter at the lyceum, children can not only study, but also attend dance and music clubs, sports sections in volleyball, athletics, karate, chess and football, as well as optional English classes.
Every school can take part in the “Safe Education” program by filling out the form at the link. On the same page, you can make a charitable contribution to improve the safety of schools in Ukraine.