In an underground classroom in Sumy, Ukraine, children sit quietly at their desks, busy with the day’s lessons. For the moment they are shielded from the horrors of nearly five years of war, but just barely.
It’s only 15 days into the new school year and already more than a thousand air raid alerts have sounded across the country, or more than 100 a day.
“Nobody hears them louder and deeper than children,” said Ricardo Pires, Deputy Spokesperson with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from just outside the classroom door to journalists in Geneva.
“An air-raid siren means a maths lesson stops halfway through. Children leave their desks for shelter. They wait for the all-clear. They return. They try to concentrate again and then the siren sounds.”
by UN News – Ukraine: Attacks on education threaten an entire generation, UNICEF warns
