The European Union and Ukrainian education charity savED are launching a €2 million initiative to rebuild educational recovery centers and shelters in the war affected regions of Sumy and Mykolaiv, giving children a safer path back to classrooms, social interaction and a sense of normal school life.
Education Recovery Moves to the Front Line
For children living in Sumy and Mykolaiv, the school day can be interrupted by an air raid alarm, a damaged building, a power outage or the need to move quickly into a shelter. The result is an education system forced to operate under conditions few children should ever have to experience.
The new EU backed project with savED is designed to address that problem at the place where it begins: the physical learning environment. The initiative will support educational recovery centers and protective shelters that can allow students to continue learning in person while maintaining access to safer spaces during periods of danger.
We see this as more than a construction program. A classroom provides children with teachers, friends, routines and opportunities to develop outside the immediate pressures of war. When those spaces disappear, the effects reach beyond missed lessons. Students can lose social connections, fall behind academically and become increasingly detached from their communities.
savED has focused much of its work on restoring precisely those connections. The organization works in frontline and border regions where access to safe in person education remains especially difficult. Its existing programs include educational centers, school shelters and underground learning environments.
Why Sumy and Mykolaiv Need Safe Learning Spaces
Both regions have experienced prolonged disruption to education because of Russia’s full scale war against Ukraine. Schools and other educational facilities have suffered physical damage, while continuing security threats have made conventional classroom education difficult or impossible in some communities.
savED’s research has documented the scale of the challenge. In Sumy region, thousands of students have been dependent on blended or remote education, with security conditions and electricity shortages affecting how consistently schools can operate. In Mykolaiv region, many children likewise continue to divide their education between classrooms and distance learning because missile and drone attacks remain a security concern.
The organization’s analysis also shows why shelters have become an essential part of educational infrastructure. A school building without a suitable protective space cannot reliably support in person learning when air raid alerts occur. A properly equipped shelter, by contrast, can allow classes to continue or resume while students remain protected.
For families, that distinction is enormous. A child walking into a functioning school rather than opening a laptop alone at home gains access to direct contact with teachers and classmates. Younger students can play together. Teenagers can work on projects, ask questions and maintain friendships. Teachers can identify learning difficulties that are harder to see through a screen.
What the €2 Million Initiative Will Support
The initiative announced for August 7 will concentrate on developing educational recovery centers and shelters in Sumy and Mykolaiv. These facilities are intended to combine safety with usable learning environments rather than treating protection and education as separate needs.
The model reflects a broader shift in Ukraine’s education recovery effort. Rebuilding a damaged school is not simply a matter of replacing walls, windows and roofs. Communities also need spaces capable of functioning during emergencies, with appropriate learning equipment, furniture, electricity and conditions that allow students to remain engaged during prolonged disruptions.
savED’s previous work offers an indication of how this approach can operate. In Mykolaiv, the organization has helped establish large underground learning environments where children can continue studying and interacting during air raid alerts. Its 2025 reporting said one underground space in the city covered more than 1,230 square meters and served children from both preschool and school age groups.
The foundation has also developed learning centers in Sumy region, where children can take part in interactive lessons, English activities and STEM programs when conventional schooling is disrupted.
The new EU backed funding therefore arrives within an existing network of education recovery work rather than as an isolated intervention. More information about savED’s education programs is available through its official education recovery platform.
Restoring More Than Classrooms
The most visible result of the project will be buildings, but its deeper purpose is human. Children who have spent years navigating war need places where the ordinary rhythm of childhood can return, even if only for part of the day.
That ordinary rhythm matters. The sound of chairs moving across a classroom floor, a teacher explaining a difficult problem, students talking during a break and children gathering for an activity are small details that can become powerful markers of stability during a prolonged crisis.
Education also has a direct connection to community recovery. When families know that their children can attend school safely, communities have another reason to remain together and rebuild. Teachers return to professional routines. Local services gain activity. Children maintain relationships with peers who may otherwise become separated by displacement.
savED’s experience in Ukraine illustrates that connection. In its 2025 results, the organization reported that more than 5,000 children had returned to school desks for the first time since the beginning of the full scale invasion through its recovery work. It also reported supporting more than 228,000 children through learning and development initiatives during the year.
Learning Loss Remains a Serious Concern
The consequences of prolonged disruption are not limited to attendance. Students who spend extended periods studying remotely can experience gaps in subject knowledge, reduced opportunities for collaboration and weaker social interaction.
Those problems can accumulate over time. A missed lesson may seem manageable, but thousands of interrupted lessons across several academic years can produce substantial learning losses. The challenge becomes particularly serious for younger children, students preparing for examinations and pupils who already require additional educational support.
Ukraine’s education recovery therefore involves two parallel tasks. Schools must be made physically safer, while students also need support to recover knowledge lost during years of disrupted education.
The EU and savED project addresses the first of these needs directly by supporting spaces where education can take place more safely. Such infrastructure can then provide a foundation for tutoring, learning recovery programs and other academic support.
A Broader European Commitment to Ukraine’s Schools
The project also fits into a much larger European effort to keep Ukrainian education functioning during the war and prepare the sector for long term recovery.
International organizations and European governments have supported school reconstruction, protective shelters, educational equipment and programs designed to help children regain lost learning. The European Commission’s education policy resources reflect the wider role education plays in resilience, social development and recovery.
savED has previously worked with international partners on education programs across several Ukrainian regions. Its partnership with Education Cannot Wait, for example, has included plans for new EduHive learning centers in Mykolaiv, Sumy and other regions.
That accumulated experience matters because rebuilding education during an active war requires more than financial resources. Projects must be adapted to local security conditions, power availability, damaged infrastructure and the needs of individual communities.
Why Safe In Person Learning Matters Now
Remote education has been an essential lifeline for Ukrainian students, particularly when schools could not safely open. But it cannot fully replace the experience of being physically present with teachers and classmates.
For a child, school is also a social institution. It is where friendships form, confidence develops and adults outside the family can provide support. Safe educational centers can preserve those functions even when a traditional school building is damaged or when security conditions prevent normal operations.
The challenge is especially acute in communities close to Russia’s border and in areas that have endured repeated attacks. There, a functioning educational shelter can determine whether children study together or remain isolated at home.
We should therefore view the €2 million commitment through the lives it is intended to affect. The central measure of success will not simply be the number of facilities repaired or constructed. It will be whether children can return to desks, see their classmates, learn from their teachers and feel that school remains a dependable part of their lives.
Building a Foundation for Ukraine’s Future
Ukraine’s eventual reconstruction will involve roads, housing, hospitals, energy systems and countless public buildings. Schools will be part of that recovery, but their importance extends beyond the structures themselves.
Every classroom restored creates a place where a younger generation can continue developing despite the circumstances surrounding it. Every safe shelter makes it more practical for schools to operate. Every student who returns to in person learning retains another connection to a community that war has attempted to fracture.
The EU and savED initiative in Sumy and Mykolaiv is consequently a targeted investment in both immediate safety and long term educational resilience. Its €2 million price tag represents a relatively focused intervention, but the outcome sought is much larger: keeping children connected to learning and to one another while their communities endure an extraordinary period of uncertainty.
For Ukrainian families, the meaning of recovery may begin with something deceptively simple. A school door opens. A teacher is waiting. Children enter together. And for a few hours, despite the alarms and uncertainty beyond the walls, they are able to learn, talk, play and imagine a future that extends beyond the war.
