We invite you to the “Open Doors Day at the Ukrainian School in Sibiu”, on October 1st, from 10:00 to 14:00, on Smârdan street number 5 in Sibiu.

The daily school program will start on Monday, October 3, 2022.

The curriculum is aligned with the Ukrainian curriculum. There will be 4 teachers, 1 Romanian teacher, 1 English teacher, 1 Ukrainian teacher and 2 teachers of arts and technologies. Apart from the Romanian language teacher, the entire staff is made up of refugee teachers from Ukraine.

“It is very important that these children have access to education, in a first phase in their mother tongue, this will facilitate their learning process in general, but in particular, that of the Romanian language. We hope that in the future, most of them will be able to be integrated, if they choose to stay in Sibiu, in the local education system” says Lu Knobloch, from SUS INIMA, the organisation promoting this initiative.

The space where the activity will take place is provided free of charge by the Sibiu Evangelical Parish at 5 Smârdan Street.

Due to the fact that this unique initiative is an expensive one, we also asked for the involvement of the students’ parents, who agreed to contribute by paying a modest fee of 200 lei to complete the necessary budget.

The school in this form will run for one year, being a 9-month project (October – June). During this year the children will have the opportunity to learn the Romanian language and in the following year they will be able to continue school, either in the Romanian educational system as a student, not as a visitor as it was until now, or to return to Ukraine and re-enter the educational system there.

“We have a very strong desire to help these children, at least for one year, to open a space for students in grades V-XI, but we have not yet managed to find funding. The expenses are quite high, as we are talking about 234 children already on the lists”, continues Carmen Chindris, president of SUS INIMA.

More than 83% of Ukrainian families in Sibiu are willing to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. Only 4% of the families have decided to stay in Sibiu for the long term and the rest have not yet decided.

Advantages of this solution:

• Children will receive quality education this academic year
• They will learn Romanian, as it will be a compulsory language in the Ukrainian School in Sibiu
• Due to the fact that the school will be open all day long, parents will have the possibility to have full time jobs
• This environment will give students the opportunity to socialize, and thus solve possible significant psychological problems for both children and parents
• Parents will also be involved in school activities and thus interact with the community on a regular basis
• The school will also develop a programme outside school hours; on weekends and after school, functioning as an educational hub (for Romanian language study, artistic activities and various training and educational sessions)

“In the spring it was considered the same solution of online education as during the pandemic, but this form of education is not suitable especially for young children. So we are looking to make this initiative of the Ukrainian school a reality for Ukrainian children here in Sibiu. The first step we are taking now is to open the primary school on 1 October, and hopefully we will be able to open it for secondary and high school students.” concludes Eugene Vovk, coordinator of programs dedicated to refugees from Ukraine of SUS INIMA.

The Ukrainian Primary School in Sibiu is a project co-financed by SWISS SOLIDARITY and Canpack Romania.

If you want to support our activities, you can contact the SUS INIMA team: office@susinima.eu, comunicare@susinima.eu, susinimasibiu@gmail.com