Update of the renovation of the Yalynka kindergarten bomb shelter: starting to decorate!
The Reconstruction project continues to actively renovate children’s bomb shelters to provide kids from the villages of Mykulychi and Druzhnia with comfortable and safe spaces during air raids. Read more about the progress of the renovation of the shelter in Mykulychi and the work of the Shelters project below.
We remind you that the shelter in Mykulychi kindergarten consists of a large hall and several additional rooms. It is in the large hall that pre-school groups and temporarily schoolchildren are staying during the danger. The Yalynka kindergarten has already taken care of the renovation of the large hall – the main repairs have been carried out, but this space is not enough. Therefore, the Reconstruction team is completing work on expanding the space for preschoolers by turning one of the technical rooms into an additional sleeping area.
Doors have been installed in the hall to help insulate the room, and the main renovation work has already been completed in the future bedroom: the walls and ceiling have been renovated, ventilation and heating radiators have been set up, electricity and new lighting have been installed, and the entrance door has been replaced. The only thing left to complete the renovation is to finish the floor, decorate the walls and furnish the room!
The repair of this shelter was made possible thanks to a charitable donation from the Förderkreis Mahnmal St. Nikolai e.V. (St Nikolai Memorial, Mahnmal St. Nikolai).
But realising that we had to create a whole new space for children, we applied for a grant from ChangeX, an organisation that B50 is already familiar with, which has teamed up with the LEGO Foundation to create the Create a World of Learning Through Play initiative in Ukraine, which helps implement educational and play projects in communities, including the construction of children’s shelters.
Our application was successful and ChangeX supported our idea for the second time!
Thanks to this grant, we will be able to buy the necessary things for the shelter in Mykulychi to turn these rooms into real spaces for children, where they can relax, play, develop and ignore the air dangers.
THE RESULT OF THE VOLUNTEERS’ WORK OF THE PROJECT RECONSTRUCTION, BEFORE AND AFTER
We were able to buy cots and bedding to furnish the future bedroom, as well as the necessary building materials and radiators to make the rooms warm and energy efficient.
But the first thing we did was to buy the paints we needed for the decoration! Because while the Reconstruction team was working on the bedroom, the Shelters team started their work on the hall. To create the mural, we chose 3 walls at once, where the beds are placed. In addition, a heat-insulating floor covering will be added to the room so that the children will be warm and can play even on the floor.
The theme of the shelter was the concept of kids’ dreams/dreaming. After all, every child should have the opportunity to dream, even if they are forced to stay in a shelter from the threat of drone and missile attacks.
A “Country of Dreams”’” was created to decorate the hall, and the bedroom will soon be filled with a “Dreamland’.
The mural designs for this shelter were created specifically for the Shelters project. In the next post, we will introduce you to our designers more closely 🙂
It took four ‘volunteer’ days to create the “Country of Dreams” mural, one of which was spent transferring the finished sketch to the walls, and three more to paint it, gradually bringing the inhabitants of the dream world to life.
A large-scale mural 11 metres in length now wraps around a corner of the children’s area, so that kids can feel like they are in a fairy-tale world together with the characters.
This is what the completed mural looks like!
Follow our progress, because there is very little time left to complete the work at this location! We thank our partners and volunteers who help to preserve childhood for the youngest Ukrainians.