From Idea to Action: Lyceum in Mykolaiv Oblast Creates a Supportive Space for Children Through Sports
More than six months have passed since the first project management bootcamp under the School Up project, by the East SOS team. During this time, the school teams not only refined their ideas but also started bringing them to life in their hromadas (communities).
Out of the ten teams that participated, five received UAH 200,000 in funding to bring their initiatives to life. Among them was Sofiivka Lyceum in Bashtanka Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast. The team launched the “Active Generation: Creating the Future” project, which creates a sports space for children and youth.
Today, it is more than just an idea, but a process that has united students, teachers, and their community.
Learn how project management training helped the school move from concept to action.
Sofiivka Lyceum in Bashtanka Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast, is a hub school attended by 250 children from four different villages.
“Our students come from diverse backgrounds, many of them have experienced forced displacement, loss, and uncertainty. They need a space where they can recover, take their mind off things, and be with other children their age,” said Liubov Snihur, the principal of Sofiivka Lyceum.
Safety comes first. Now completed and furnished, the shelter effectively operates as an underground school, featuring fully equipped educational spaces for students. In 2023, East SOS helped furnish two classrooms in the shelter.
Once the basic safety needs were met, the team focused on developing a space for activities and recovery.
“We asked the children, parents, and our hromada what mattered most to them. There were different ideas, from restoring the museum to adding equipment to classrooms. But the majority voted for renovating the gym, which had been left without repairs for around 30 years. We saw it as a place where children could move, release tension, and simply be together,” said the principal.
Students at the lyceum are actively participating in sports, including volleyball, football, and tennis competitions. At the same time, in the daily reality of air raid alerts and shelling, the need for physical activity has come to mean much more.
“Children need emotional release. They live under constant stress of air raid alerts, going to shelters and studying during breaks. We want every child to be able to choose where they want to spend their time, how they want to rest, and how they want to recover. The nearby village of Pelahiivka has a wellness center by the river, and children can visit us to enjoy the outdoor sports ground or the gym.” Liubov added.
Participating in East SOS’s School Up project was not only the team’s first experience with project management training, and a real turning point. While the final works in the gym are still underway, proactive teachers and students are already writing new project applications to further expand the lyceum’s sports infrastructure.
“The project management bootcamp gave us a clear structure: how to assess needs, formulate ideas, prepare an application, and attract resources. This experience also helped our young people. Darʼia Havrylenko, a participant in the bootcamp from our lyceum, together with like-minded young people, won another youth grant to create the multifunctional historical, sports, and educational hub Spadshchyna Vidrodzhennia (Heritage of Revival). It has become a valuable addition to the gym, the football field, and local tourism activities,” said Liubov.
Today, the gym is undergoing a full renovation: the walls and ceiling are being repaired, and the equipment is being renewed. The principal noted that once the hromada saw the school’s initiative, it began to actively support the changes and respond to various needs, including allocating funds to replace the flooring.
Today, Sofiivka Lyceum is an example of how a school can gradually reshape the environment around it: from meeting basic safety needs to creating a space where children can grow, interact and feel that they belong.
The project management training is organized by East SOS within the School Up: Strengthening the Capacity of Frontline and Displaced Schools in Ukraine project, in partnership with the Danish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, with the support of CISU.
Recently, with the support of East SOS, a new support space for students, educators, and local residents is now operational in Zhovti Vody hromada. Find out more.
