The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine has announced that the Federal Government of Germany is contributing EUR 5 million in financing to help a project in Ukraine to rehabilitate schools damaged by the war, a press release states.
More than 3,000 educational institutions have suffered damage or total destruction as a result of fighting, according to the most recent statistics from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
Overall, learning in Ukraine has been severely impacted by the war, leaving nearly 5 million children in need of educational support in 2022, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
As part of the UNDP’s Resilience Building and Recovery Offer, the UNDP-led initiative will assist resilience building and green recovery by renovating and restoring damaged educational institutions in areas devastated by war. Initial funding targets were chosen from a list of 74 schools spread across 12 municipalities that require immediate repairs. The list was released by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
By helping the Ukrainian government rehabilitate 12 more schools in five municipalities (Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Sumy, and Chernihiv), the German government will help almost 3,000 students resume their education.
Jaco Cilliers, the UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine, stated that UNDP teams have begun evaluating the precise renovation requirements for each lightly or partially damaged facility, and they will be repaired and retrofitted. He added that an accelerated procurement process will select a group of businesses to undertake the restoration work. The repair work will be carried out in accordance with national regulations and Eurocode 8, adhering to the Build Back Better principles.
Anka Feldhusen, the German Ambassador to Ukraine, emphasized the significance of investing in the future of Ukraine, particularly in the resilience of its children and their educators. She stated that the children will be responsible for rebuilding this magnificent country and making it even better. However, they require educational institutions to learn and mentors to guide them. Additionally, it is necessary to ensure that their school buildings are healthy places for learning.
A standardized strategy will be used for the repair and retrofitting of existing buildings, in accordance with the Eurocode 8 standard, which is applicable to the design and construction of buildings and other civil engineering projects in seismic regions. Environmentally-friendly furnishings and equipment, such as LED lights in place of fluorescent light bulbs containing mercury, will be promoted while hazardous construction materials, such as asbestos and POP-containing sealants, will be outlawed. Accessibility standards will also play a significant role in the initial design brief and be one of the criteria used to choose the design team and the developer.
