Being a teacher and a friend: how schools work in hospitals

Oleksiy is a second-grader, but he spent the last two months not in his classroom but in a basement in Mariupol. There, together with his family, the boy was hiding from air strikes. Oleksiy’s mother calls how she and the other women were sitting in a circle listening to the sounds of fighter aircraft, hugging each other tight and hiding children between themselves. She said: «All of us, mothers, thought of just one thing – if only we died together at the same time so that the children are not left in this horror alone». 

Now Oleksiy is safe and he even attends individual lessons. It’s hard to believe but children strive for education even after the atrocities of war. Oleksiy and his family were checked into the NDSL Okhmatdyt where there is a School of Superheroes. Here, children acquire knowledge just the way they used to before the war. For example, Oleksiy was able to get back to studying because his teacher, Mrs Yuliia Mykolayivna found an appropriate approach to the little superhero. Before the war, the teacher with the eloquent surname Komandyr, (Ukr. – commander) had worked in the elementary school of one of the Kyiv schools. Then, she decided to join the hospital lessons: «I looked at my students and I saw how the war weighed down on them. I was thinking about wounded children and what they felt. About children who went through all this horror. So, when I saw the job opening at the Superheroes School, I submitted my application without a doubt. Being a teacher and a friend is how I can help children during the war». 

Mrs Yuliia has done the impossible. She carefully and gently turned Oleksiy from the war to studying and to lessons that he is into. She is certain that they will be able to catch up with the school curriculum so that the boy can go back to school in autumn. 

Artyukh Karyna also fled from the crippled Mariupol with her parents. She was injured and was getting medical treatment at the NDSL Okhmatdyt. Math classes with her teacher Olena Kirkevych turned out to be an additional therapy for Karyna. Karyna is preparing for the external independent evaluation and is diligently learning all the formulas by heart. She keeps saying that the war will not stop her dream of entering university. 

This is just a small part of the stories about children winning this war in hospitals together with teachers, parents and doctors. Back in 2016, the School of Superheroes held the first lessons at the NDSL Okhmatdyt for children with HIV. Then it became clear that education in hospitals is of utmost importance because often children are forced to undergo treatment in hospitals for months, sometimes for years. All of these children have the right to education and their chance for a future. So in 2017, the first permanent class was opened, and there were two of them soon after. In a couple of years, the School of Superheroes started operating on a nationwide scale. The classrooms have been opened in the Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky, Kharkiv, and Kherson. The school was franchised and on January 1, 2022, received the status of a public institution – Hospital School of Superheroes. This only meant that every city would sooner or later be able to invite children to classes in their hospitals.

These plans, as well as all others in our country, were destroyed by the war. But the school at the NDSL Okhmatdyt Hospital did not stop operating even in the first weeks of the missile strikes. Yes, most of its students left the country because they managed to be taken abroad for treatment. Meanwhile, the School became a place that welcomed new superheroes: those who have survived the shelling and lost their homes. The School and its Library have launched the space of childhood where one can dive into the universe of knowledge, stories, and wonders for at least a couple of hours. Since April, former NDSL Okhmatdyt patients who were still abroad gradually have begun to return to online learning. These are children with cancer diagnoses who need constant treatment. However, they missed the lessons so much that they resumed their lessons with teachers via online platforms. 

Superheroes in paediatrics and toxicology departments are already returning to group classes, and new specialists are joining the team of teachers. The school lives on and 30 brave students attend the classes either in a group, individually, or remotely from abroad. There are two teachers working offline now – Luchyk Halyna and Savchenko Bohdan. They hold classes in math, robotics, a subject called “Understanding the world” and other subjects upon requests from the superheroes. All of it was made possible thanks to 8 more teachers on hand who are ready to join us as soon as they get a request. It is impossible to put childhood on hold and the 98 lessons held since the beginning of the war speak for themselves. 

The Superheroes School became a portal to childhood in the time of war. Its teachers believe that these lessons are also powerful therapy. The parents keep supporting their children’s desire to drop by a new class: «It allows them to reinforce their self-belief and confidence that there is something else beyond this horror» — says Oleksiy’s mother. 

«Of course, there is much work ahead. We still have to look into the eyes of children who have seen hell. But we are here for these children’s future, physical, and mental health. Everyone is in their place and ready to work for victory so that the school in Kherson with its incredible teachers can re-open. Until the moment our children are safe, and there will only be school bells heard instead of air raid sirens» — Evgenia Smirnova, the founder of the Superheroes School.