Ukraine: a million books from the EU for the country’s schoolchildren. Funds from Europe to repair schools

The one million computer and arts textbooks that have been sent to Ukrainian schoolchildren are the outcome of the cooperation of different European countries, coordinated by the EU. Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, the files to be printed were graphically developed in the Netherlands, the paper for the books came from Germany, the books were printed in Poland, from where they were shipped to Ukraine. A similar initiative had already allowed Europe to send 500 thousand books to the war-torn country’s schoolchildren. “While schoolchildren and teachers all over the EU go back to school, the EU Commission is working”, a notice from the European Commission explains, “to allow Ukrainian schoolchildren to continue their education, despite the indiscriminate drone and missile strikes from the Russian aggressor”. Next to these efforts targeted to children who have stayed in Ukraine, the EU allocated 100 million euros to help make sure they can have access to safe education in Ukraine by repairing damaged schools, creating learning spaces, raising awareness of the risk of landmines, and trying to provide psychosocial support to children, teachers and tutors.Valentina Bombelli