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Since the onset of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, UNESCO has been assisting Ukrainian population and institutions. How precisely, — answeres Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi — the Head of UNESCO Desk in Ukraine since October 2022
She spoke about it during the conversation with Andriy Kulykov for English-language podcast Ukraine Calling on Hromadske radio:
«Three wider mandate areas have been at the core of our work, namely education, and particularly continuity of education. Through two main axes, the first is distance learning and the possibility for teachers to continue to reach children. And this through distribution of devices, thanks to several partners, including Google.
And we could reach, by December, 50,528 teachers in order to enable them to connect with the children and with different classes, with a component for all the pedagogical tools associated to this means of education. And the second is mental health support. As you know, mental health and psychosocial support is really a key domain. We are all affected by this context. All of us, children, but also not only children, but teachers, education staff, all, the entire system. So we are closely working with the Ministry of Education and Science in, first, guidelines and all the policies to strengthen the system, the response systems in this domain, the education system, and we could identify, through an assessment, gaps to reinforce facility, to reinforce training».
Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi also says, that they are now working with psychologists in school to reinforce the system, and with teachers:
«We have an objective in the very short term, and this year already started, to reach 15,000 psychologists working in education system and 20,000 teachers to provide services, as the ultimate goal, to 160,000 children».
You may read and listen full conversation: «Education, mental health, safety, heritage» — Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi about how UNESCO helps Ukraine