"The After school centre is a place where children get what they urgently need and cannot get at home or school – things that make their childhood a real childhood, things that make adolescents feel safer and more confident, shares Inna, the teacher at Mission Without Borders's after school club in Blahodatne, Ukraine."
"We provide a safe place, feed children delicious lunches, help with homework, build relationships, talk about God, and help them with their education. We become friends. Here, many children from disadvantaged families receive love, care, and understanding of themselves and the world. We are thankful to our God for that. "
"During the war, the After school centre also became a shelter for displaced children and teenagers. We went through the stages of healing from emotional trauma and recovery with them and were a bridge to the world around us. Children know that they will always find support and help here. Praise our God for that."
"A week after the start of the war, when we recovered from the first shock, our centre resumed its work."
"Every day, we had about 60 children, most of whom were from displaced families. We tried to the best of our abilities to provide psychological and emotional support and prayed for them. We fed them and provided for their basic needs. The children coming from war zones were severely traumatised."
"There were cases when children had no contact whatsoever with their parents for a whole month after they arrived. They were terrified and hid from any loud noise."
"The schools were closed, and online learning hadn't been established yet. The level of education completely deteriorated. Children wandered around home, without socialising, totally isolated. The lack of interaction often caused problems in children's behaviour, with a lack of discipline, aggression and misunderstanding.
Over time, schools began to function, alternating children between a week online and a week at school. Unfortunately, such changes between the two mostly cause disorganisation and indiscipline, which is very disorientating for the children"