From Idea to Action: Relocated from Pokrovsk, School Creates a Supportive Space for Students in Dnipro

Can a school still be a community, even when its walls are gone?

The war has forced thousands of children and teachers to leave behind their homes, their schools, and the lives they once knew. Still, even in times like these, communities do not disappear, but adapt, and continue to grow.

The Minister of Education and Science says that Ukraine has 56 relocated schools that remain active, and one of them is Educational Complex No. 1 of the Pokrovsk City Council. After relocating to Dnipro in 2025, the team didn’t just resume classes, but also joined the School Up project carried out by East SOS.

The school team completed our project management training. They received mentoring support and funding, and created a psychosocial support room for children and teachers.

Read the full story on our website to learn how the school managed to preserve its sense of community and create new opportunities for its students. The beginning of the story.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Educational Complex No. 1 of the Pokrovsk City Council in Donetsk Oblast served as a key transit point where people could receive assistance before boarding evacuation trains. That was where the East SOS team first met the school’s administration. We crossed paths again in 2025 during a project management training in Kyiv.

“I was surprised to receive an invitation letter from the foundation, as I remembered the team from the evacuation period and assumed the message was related to those events. But once I read it, I realized we had a chance to try our hand at project management. These skills could help us rebuild our capacity in a new city,” shared the school’s principal, Iryna Zinich.

The school resumed its work in Dnipro in September 2025. Some of its learning spaces were set up at Dnipro University of Technology, where both the school and the kindergarten currently operate, and all the teachers and learners there are internally displaced. Despite the relocation, the school is gradually growing: in just six months, the number of students increased from 50 to nearly 100 children.

“We are all internally displaced people here – both the teachers and almost all of the children. We managed to set up classrooms for learning here, but what we lacked was a space where you could simply stay, recover, and feel safe,” said Iryna Perepolkina, Acting Deputy Principal for Academic Affairs and a primary school teacher.

A similar space had existed in Pokrovsk, but because of the evacuation, not all of the school’s property could be saved. So, when the team learned about the opportunity to join the School Up project, the idea for their future initiative was already there.

“This idea had been with us for a long time. Once we got to know the foundation’s team, we were finally able to clearly explain what we were missing and why this space mattered so much to us. The bootcamp in Kyiv helped us structure that need and turn it into a solid project proposal worthy of support.”

Iryna Perepolkina also admitted that, for the team at Educational Complex No. 1, this was their first experience of systematic training in project management, from shaping an idea to mobilizing resources. The result was a resource room project, with equipment procured and delivered by East SOS as part of the School Up project.

Opened at the end of 2025, was designed to serve multiple purposes: it includes zones for play, relaxation, and both individual and group activities. Thanks to the light panels, sand table, and soft furniture provided, children now have everything they need to calm down, shift their attention, and regain a sense of control over their emotional state.

“We carefully considered every detail, so that children would feel comfortable and safe, and so that this space would evoke positive emotions and the feeling that they are always welcome here. Playful characters help create that atmosphere too – the space’s own ‘guardians’: Suvunia the Owl, representing knowledge; Avokasyk the Avocado, promoting a healthy lifestyle; and Chomusyk the Octopus, symbolizing calm and balance. Through play and association, they help children engage more easily,” the teacher explained.

As the lessons are held in a blended format, the activities in the resource room are combined with online sessions, so that all students can remain part of the shared process.

An important part of the project was also the work done with teachers and parents. East SOS psychologists helped develop a practical toolkit for school psychologists, offering hands-on methods for working with anxiety, stress, and emotional wellbeing.

“We want to share this experience so that other schools can benefit from it as well. Right now, our school psychologist is working on a guide based on these methods. In the future, we plan to introduce it at the community level, then across the region, and eventually nationwide,” Iryna Perepolkina noted.

This approach is already producing results: teachers have become better at recognizing students’ emotional states and applying quick stabilization techniques, which have noticeably reduced emotional exhaustion. For many teachers, this experience has also become a source of personal support.

“I live alone in a new place. I teach four primary school classes online and spend most of my time at the computer. Sessions with the psychologist, alongside my colleagues, helped me better understand my emotions and learn how to support myself. It felt as though we were able to reset and start seeing that we actually could influence our own emotional state. That was incredibly important,” Iryna shared.

The team is now working on scaling up the methods they have developed. One of the school staff’s main goals is to preserve the school’s unity despite different learning formats, distance, and the war.

The project management training was organized by the East SOS Charity Foundation as part of the project School Up: Strengthening the Capacity of Frontline and Displaced Schools in Ukraine, in cooperation with the Danish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and with the support of CISU – Civil Society in Development.

We recently shared a story about how a lyceum in Mykolaiv Oblast is creating a supportive space for children through sports.