Patron's Friends team
This is the team of five volunteers who are participating in the Red Cross Mine Hazard training project in the Bucha district. Actually there are a bit more of us, but the rest work in neighboring regions and cities.
It is precisely these boys and girls who are currently teaching such an important subject in schools of Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel, as we have identified this direction as a priority in the near future.
Now it is the beginning of the new 2023 year, and I would like to sum up the results of our, so far short, but interesting work.
In October 2022, I took on the "Mine Safety" project that the Red Cross was opening in the Bucha region, and now it has become my main job and more - today's mission.
Now we have been at war for eight years, and Ukraine has long been the most mine-contaminated country in the world. Our three Hero Cities: Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel stopped the enemy at the beginning of a full-scale invasion and did not let him reach the capital.
There were active combat operations, and there are many unexploded ordnance remnants left from the war. That is why it is necessary to teach our people proper behavior with all these deadly objects.
For this, I announced a recruitment of potential volunteer instructors.
We received 51 applications, invited 20 candidates to a trial lesson and selected 10 willing to undergo full training. Later, 8 people received trainer certificates.
At the beginning of November, we launched the "Friends of Patron" public movement in order to draw children's attention to the issue of Mine Safety and teach them to change their behavior regarding explosive objects.
Children are currently the main group of risk in this topic, so we need to take care of their lives and health - that's why we went to schools.
During this time, we managed to:
- start teaching in 4 cities: Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, Mykhailivska-Rubizhivka
- start regular classes in 6 schools
- hold 113 lessons
- teach 1719 children - 894 boys and 825 girls
We really wanted the total number to be more than 2 000 studentsbut frequent air raids, power outages and school closures greatly hindered us.
However, we managed to work in regular classrooms, libraries, auditoriums and even in bomb shelters - you could say that we passed our first baptism of fire with the children.
Under any circumstances, we saw a keen interest in this topic from the students, received hundreds of interesting questions, and heard dozens of real-life stories about encounters with war and its horrific consequences.
In addition, we launched the drawing competition "Friends of Patron", to increase the activity of schoolchildren and further engage them. As a result, we received – 287 drawings and each of them was accompanied a unique mini-story.
Children drew imagined friends of Patron from around the world and from different parts of Ukraine. All the drawings were wonderful and we separately recognized and awarded 42 students, whose work seemed to us the most creative and interesting.
And going forward, with all of these ideas , using the help of a professional artist and digital drawing methods, we decided to create an NFT collection , which we will present to the public very soon.
I would like to thank my team for their daily hard work for the future of our children and our country. It is a great honor for me to work with you.
Thank you to all of our students for sharing the knowledge they have gained with their friends, family, and acquaintances.
Thanks to our incredible armed forces - you are true heroes!
This year will be a victorious one for every Ukrainian - may it just be so, and the rest we will do ourselves!
Glory to our armed forces!
Everything will be Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
