The educational organization Finnoschool and Zhytomyr City Council have now signed a joint memorandum of cooperation. The document was signed by Mikko Lumme, CEO of Finnoschool ltd, and Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn.

Mikko Lumme founded Finnoschool 14 years ago. Since then, he and his team have been collecting the best educational practices and supporting teachers in their professional development. “We have developed a number of educational materials with the best Finnish experts. Our mission is to improve the quality of education and training. This project provides an opportunity to study, undergo trainings, and attract grants,” says Mikko Lumme.

“The help of our Finnish friends is more than valuable. It is an opportunity for us to look at the education system differently, to take the best of European education. We are now actively working on the concept of transforming vocational education. Our boys and girls will need retraining after their military careers. Therefore, we thank you for this initiative and for your constant support,” said Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn.

Mikko Lumme is impressed by the professionalism of Zhytomyr’s teachers and the care they provide for children. “I am impressed with how you have managed to develop the learning environment in the shelters. The walls and roof protect the children. But it is the love and attitude towards children that is immediately noticeable. I sincerely wish Ukraine peace and victory,” he said after visiting two Zhytomyr pre-schools, kindergartens 37 and 73.

Mikko Lumme is primarily interested in the psychological state of children, the play environment and safety conditions. He says that after visiting kindergartens, he was convinced that preschool teachers do their best to ensure that children are not deprived of a happy childhood.

There are 255 children and 11 groups in kindergarten No. 37. We meet kids who have turned into kittens and are rushing to a music lesson… Now the institution is holding themed days called “Happy Paw”, during which children are taught to love animals, teachers explain.

Mikko Lumme asks the teachers about the psychological state of the children.

“They have become too mature for their age: they take safety issues seriously. And the teachers are working to ensure that they do not experience stress when they go down to the shelter,” the teachers of the institution say.

Once they come down, they continue their lessons or play. Yesterday’s basement was transformed into a fairy tale: the walls were painted and all conditions were created so that children could develop and learn without feeling anxious.

A teacher from Finland is impressed with the level of patriotic education in kindergarten No. 73. There is a special classroom for Ukrainian studies, and each children’s group has a patriotic corner. The highlight of the institution is the costume room: the kindergarten has a theater studio called “Dyvoglyadiya” where kids become actors under the guidance of Nina Martsun.

Everyone goes down to the shelter without going outside. The combined efforts of the teachers have done incredible things here: there is a mini-gym, a safety room, hot water, toilets for adults and children, washbasins, teaching materials, mini-offices for a speech therapist, a defectologist and a psychologist, and a resource room for children with special educational needs. There are 8 of them in the institution.

Mikko Lumme will stay in the shelter near a unique calendar kept by the children together with their mentors. They called it “The Path to Victory” and every day since the first day of the war they have been waiting for the dream, marking it on the calendar.

“At first we wrote it in a chat room. Then we realized that we still have to wait for the Victory. We came up with the idea to make a calendar,” says Oksana Romanovska, a methodologist at the kindergarten. “The calendar shows the day and time of what the children were doing. Here they had a theater… Here you can see how many times they went down to the shelter during the day… On this day, the children went down to the shelter as many as 5 times. And on this day, the children were without heat and without light. We stayed in the shelter for the longest time – 5 hours – from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. We continue to keep our calendar with the children and bring the Victory closer with our faith.”