Vodafone has provided permanent access to online classes for 5,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren. The company equipped 5,000 tablets with SIM cards with a one-year prepaid 4G Internet connection for Ukrainian schoolchildren.
The project to provide access to education for IDP children from socially vulnerable categories was implemented jointly with the BGV Charitable Foundation in partnership with the German charity #WeAreAIlUkrainians and the international organization Plan International.
Network and help
“Our main task today is to restore communications after the destruction and maintain its performance. Despite the serious damage and thanks to the tireless work of our communications staff, we have managed to reach 90% of the network’s capacity. We are doing everything we can to ensure that Ukrainians always stay connected,” said Victoria Ruban, Head of Public Affairs at Vodafone Ukraine.
According to her, the operator continues to develop and expand our 4G network so that residents of small villages have the same access to high-quality world as residents of large cities. At the same time, the company does not hesitate to help.
The geography of the project covered seven regions of our country: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions. The logistics partner, Nova Poshta, delivered the tablets to 518 settlements at its own expense. 5000 children received the gadgets free of charge.
Thus, with the support of the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, the BGV Foundation and partners provided gadgets to 2,353 girls and 2,647 boys aged 6 to 14 years. Among them are children with disabilities, children from large, low-income and single-parent families, orphans and children deprived of parental care, as well as children affected by military operations and armed conflicts.
Activities of the BGV Foundation
“Helping children and educational initiatives are among the main areas of work of the BGV Foundation. Our charitable organization is grateful to all project partners for the opportunity to provide free tablets to 5000 IDP children. We took a very responsible approach to the issue of targeted distribution of gadgets, as part of the preparation for the project, with the assistance of the Ombudsman’s Office of Ukraine and the efforts of regional social services, we compiled lists of families with children who met the project criteria,” said Polina Aldoshyna, Director of the BGV Charitable Foundation.
The Foundation also managed to help families who were not digitized and could not apply online on their own. Employees of the regional offices of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights made individual visits to such families and helped them register to fill out the application. Thanks to an effective partnership, the Foundation implemented one of the largest projects worth more than one million euros within two months.
Education during the war
According to UNICEF, a total of 5.7 million children have had their education interrupted since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. And online learning has become the only way to continue the educational process. As of May 2023, according to statistics from the Institute of Educational Analytics, 1.46 million children attended classes remotely; 1.2 million students were studying in a mixed form.
According to Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi, as of the end of July 2023, more than 1,300 educational institutions in Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged – more than 300 educational institutions have been destroyed, more than 1,000 educational institutions have been damaged and are subject to examination. This number may increase daily as the war continues and the destruction of educational infrastructure shows no signs of stopping.
Vodafone continues to help the population
In total, since March 2022, Vodafone has provided free gadgets and services worth UAH 1.54 billion. Another UAH 152 million was transferred to various social and humanitarian needs (purchase of ambulances and medical equipment, construction of shelters for schools, humanitarian convoys, financial assistance to children of fallen soldiers, support for students, transfer of computer, IT and other equipment).
The company is also involved in joint projects, such as the installation of alternative heating systems for maternity hospitals as part of the League of Warmth project. More than UAH 5.8 billion has been invested to support the network and ensure its operation in the context of hostilities and blackouts.
Recently, thanks to the cooperation of Vodafone Ukraine and the Charitable Foundation “Pure in Heart”, residents of the frontline regions of Ukraine received first aid kits. Within the framework of the project, 3,368 first aid kits worth over UAH 9 million were delivered to civilians in the frontline regions of Ukraine. The assistance was provided to residents of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
