[Moldova]Peace Winds has been hosting activities to enhance mutual understanding between Ukrainian children and Moldovan children
At two public schools in Moldova’s capital Chisinau, Peace Winds has been hosting programs to help Moldovan children and Ukrainian children who now live in Moldova understand each other’s history and culture.
One of the two, the Taras Shevchenko school has accepted many Ukrainian pupils and students who had to escape to Moldova because of the Russian invasion. Ukrainian children now make up about a third of the pupils and students. When our staff visited the program, first and second graders learned about histories and cultures of both countries using slides of photographs and movies. Then they had presentations about their cultures. Also, they worked together on common tasks and learned to help each other.
An Ukrainian lecturer spoke to the children wearing Ukrainian traditional embroidered blouse.
In the latter half of the workshop, children, teachers and parents all participated to make small mascots with yarns of Ukrainian colors.
Ukrainian pupils recited Ukrainian poems.
Peace Winds hosts similar programs at another public school, Mihaly Kotvinski school.
A girl made a mascot with some help by a teacher.
Smiley faces with the mascots they made.
At both schools, Peace Winds provides programs for psychological support. These programs include activities such as art therapies and seminars on stress release for children who need to adapt to new living environments away from some family members or friends. We also provide programs for teachers who have difficulty managing increasing numbers of children from the neighboring country.
Programs for teachers include study sessions on the history and culture of both two countries, and seminars on communication skills.
In one of such seminars, a psychologist gave a lecture on effective communication between teachers and students, which was a very pressing matter for the teachers. The participants asked for contact information of the psychologist.
Participating teachers had many serious questions for the lecturer and exchanged ideas among themselves.
Psychologist talked to the students at the Mihaly Kotvinski school.
In a seminar for the upper graders, the psychologist explained about self-control, the basic emotions and how to deal with them in plain language, sometimes encouraging students to speak out.
At the beginning, teenagers were shy but eventually started to speak freely as they get used to the atmosphere. At the end, they felt comfortable enough to talk about their anxieties and questions.
We hope children of Moldova and Ukraine understand each other better through these activities and their school lives will be improved.
This project has been supported by the donation from individual and corporate supporters and the grant from Japan Platform. We ask for your continuous support. Thank you.