Olena Zelenska Foundation supports the creation of six new Superheroes Schools in 2024

The Superheroes School Network is expanding!

The story of the birth and development of the Superheroes School began back in 2016, when we launched an educational programme for children with HIV/AIDS at the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdyt”. Step by step, we created and refined a project that became truly meaningful for the little ones undergoing treatment, and for their parents. We developed a model, created the world’s first social franchise ” Superheroes School: an implementation guide”, and piloted the establishment of schools in a number of hospitals across Ukraine.

Thanks to the support of Olena Zelenska, in 2022, under the patronage of the First Lady of Ukraine, the state institution “Superheroes School” was founded.

And this year, the Olena Zelenska Foundation will support the creation of 6 new educational centres, which will be located in hospitals in Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Rivne, Lviv, Odessa and Poltava.

The educational centres of the Superheroes School are modern spaces for children who are compelled to spend part of their childhood in hospitals, fighting for their health and lives, and who strive to discover the world.

The results are impressive: only in 2023 across 11 centres of the Superheroes School, 11,339 children received just over 85,000 educational services! More than a third of these took place in person in regions close to the front line – Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv oblasts.

“Superheroes study in these schools – brave and courageous children. Fighting illness, these children often spend months in hospitals. Some spend years there. Our task, as adults, is to help them not lose the time they would have used for learning had they been healthy. It is of the utmost importance that children have access to education under any circumstances and understand that they are not alone in their battle against illness,” says First Lady and founder of the Foundation, Olena Zelenska.

“The Foundation’s involvement in the “Superheroes School” project sits at the intersection of two areas of our work – healthcare and education. We are grateful to every international partner who continues to support Ukraine, who gives us the opportunity to improve the quality of life of our children during the war,” noted Foundation Director Nina Horbachova.

Like all children, superheroes in hospitals have the right to education. Learning for them is not only an opportunity to gain knowledge. Daily classes together with experienced teachers and psychologists allow them to take their minds off diagnoses and procedures and, even within hospital walls, to continue developing and discovering the world.

“Every day we must give children back their childhood and their love of learning, even within hospital walls. To teach them to dream without limits and to overcome their fears. At the same time, our goal is a modern, ergonomic educational space in every Ukrainian hospital, and access to quality education for every young patient. The Superheroes School is not just a project – it is a great team of teachers, educators, psychologists, doctors and parents. We are grateful for the support and endlessly happy that the circle of friends for our children is growing,” says Natalia Zhylinska, Director of the state institution “Superheroes School”.

We thank to the First Lady for her personal support, and the entire team of the Olena Zelenska Foundation for supporting the expansion of the Superheroes School educational centre network and for funding the creation of 6 new spaces in hospitals across Ukraine.