Early Learning for Vulnerable Children in Ukraine

In this pre-holiday season, people are filled with bright vibes of goodness and hope. And our children also want to share their joyful mood with you!

From the latest updates: in October, a certified trainer from US came to the Way Home Foundation. She intensively taught tutors for two weeks how best to introduce the principles of the Montessori system into their work with children. We are very pleased that our employees have improved their competence and efficiency. We have also updated some of the furniture in our Children's Centers.

Let us recall you that the Centers are attended by children from families in difficult life circumstances. In such families, the conditions for the growth of the child and the behavior of the parents often need improvement. We began to involve parents of children who visit the Centers more intensively. We regularly hold thematic meetings of parents, at which we discuss together exciting issues, at which we explain to them how to adhere to the principles of positive and harmonious parenting and development of children. Also, parents participate in joint games and classes with children. Our children are very talented! Just look at the cats they drew!

Of course, our children love the holidays! As you can see in the photo, the Early Development Centers is already actively preparing for Christmas and New Year: they have decorated the Christmas tree, rooms, make crafts, rehearse dances and poems, and wrote letters to Santa.

We always congratulate all our little pupils on Christmas holidays. And you, too, can join and donate for gifts for kids today on the project's page on GlobalGiving.

The children and we wish you a great holiday! May the next year be filled with prosperity, goodness, health and love for you!

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We are happy to have a few reasons to share with you our achievements during this period. Your support has helped us achieve them.

First, in the spring we updated the furniture at the Smile Center for Development. Now we have new excellent white shelves instead of the old desks, just like from IKEA, made to order and according to Montessori standards. Children really like it because it is convenient for them to put toys there. By the way, thanks to your support, we bought new Montessori toys for children.

To make more people know about our work, to make more parents know how to better grow and develop children, we released a series of videos on Instagram and Facebook with life hacks about games and activities with young children, advice from a speech therapist and child psychologist.

In the summer, municipal kindergartens go on vacation, but our early development centers "Smile", "Happy Palms" and "Dawn" continue to work. Therefore, the number of children in the groups increased to 50%. They often walk outside, in playgrounds, parks and frolic in the yard. Three young volunteers from Germany help us to work with children.

Fortunately, the incidence of COVID-19 in Odessa has dropped significantly and now the city is stable in the "green zone". We hope that the situation with COVID-19 will not worsen significantly by the fall, and our preschoolers will continue to visit the early development centers and play with friends and tutors, which they love so much. This is extremely important, as these are children from socially vulnerable families who need special support.

Now children aged 6 and 7 from the centers are preparing to enter the first grade of school. Your donations will help us buy school uniforms, backpacks and stationery for them.

Links:

• Instagram