Switzerland provides additional aid for schools in Ukraine

A school destroyed by Russian shelling in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, in November 2022 Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Switzerland is providing around CHF5.5 million ($6.1 million) for the renovation and furnishing of some 30 Ukrainian schools.

The aim is to ensure that nearly 15,000 schoolchildren have access to a “decent and safe” education, the foreign ministry said in a statementExternal link on Monday.

This money will be used to rebuild schools in the Chernihiv, Odessa and Poltava regions directly affected by the fighting.

“Russian military aggression has dealt a severe blow to Ukraine’s education sector,” the ministry said. “Thousands of schools across the country have been damaged or destroyed, and many teachers have fled the conflict zones, thereby disrupting the education of millions of students.”

The plan is to set up secure multi-purpose classrooms to ensure uninterrupted learning, even during air raid warnings.

The CHF5.5 million is in addition to a CHF140 million aid package requested by the government in February and approved by parliament. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis approved the amount of CHF5.5 million.

The amount will go to the Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE) project. The foreign ministry said the DECIDE project was being implemented in close cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, the Ukrainian Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, and local authorities.