We have opened: the Ukrainian school in Mechelen has opened!

The other day, the whole world celebrated International Children’s Day. It was always a very bright holiday, in addition, the children themselves rejoiced first of all – they were starting their summer vacation. But in recent years in Ukraine, even this, the most joyful holiday, no longer brings joy to people’s souls. Like it or not, children who died or were maimed in the war are remembered. And there are already hundreds of such children only officially in Ukraine. Therefore, our small Ukrainian community in Mechelen started this day by honoring the memory of those Ukrainian children who will never finish the school year and will never go on vacation. And the curse for this is on the freak Russian nation, which kills children, takes them into slavery to its, god-forsaken, territory.

Statistics (Top lead) show that ~1 million Ukrainian schoolchildren study remotely or in a mixed format: the quality of education has fallen catastrophically. Those who go to educational institutions also worsened their performance due to constant air alarms. Worst of all, during the years of the war + pandemic, they began to study literature, natural sciences. Against their background, things are a little better only with mathematics.

Therefore, the best thing that our community of Mechelen could do for our children on this day is to open a Ukrainian school. Not Sunday or any other, but quite full. From September, we will have Ukrainian classes, there will be classes in all school subjects, there will be exams – everything is like in a high school. In order for everything to happen, our small teaching staff and our parent committee have three summer months to organize everything correctly.

Until summer, our Mechelen school “Sunflower” invites young Ukrainians to educational and entertaining programs about native culture, ethnology, and travel. At the opening, we had art therapy, quizzes about Ukraine, and children’s solo performances. A rare day of joy for those young Ukrainians who are separated from their native land because of the war.

So we invite everyone who lives in or around Mechelen to attend our summer classes and enroll in our school, which will start the school year in September.