The Levko Revutskyi Children’s Art School in Bucha has received a generator, which will ensure the uninterrupted operation of the educational institution amid prolonged power outages. The BGV Charity Fund and German donors — non-profit organizations #WeAreAllUkrainians and the Lufthansa Group’s help alliance — provided the assistance. The new generator with an 87 kW capacity will not only provide constant interior lighting for the school but also support the modern electric heating of its buildings. The overall cost of the generator amounts to 1.1 million hryvnias.
“The constant Russian shelling of critical infrastructure and energy systems has led to frequent power outages in Ukrainian towns. This issue particularly affects Bucha and the local art school, where teachers cannot properly, timely, and qualitatively continue the educational process,” said the Bucha City Council. “The lack of electricity, canceled lessons, transitioning to online learning, cold classrooms — all of this leads to students leaving the school, a decrease in the number of teachers, and, ultimately, we were concerned that the learning at the school could be suspended altogether. Music, painting, and choreography are important despite everything, especially as creative therapy and assistance for children. They are experiencing the horrors of war, but art supports and soothes them. We are very grateful to our donors for providing light and warmth. This generator will be sufficient for the school’s autonomous operation in power outages.”
The BGV Charity Fund, led by Hennadii Butkevych, and the Bucha City Council signed a memorandum of cooperation in September. According to this agreement, the fund and German donors — non-profit organizations #WeAreAllUkrainians and help alliance — are restoring the Levko Revutskyi Bucha Children’s Art School. The project funding exceeds 8 million hryvnias.
As part of the first stage, which lasted until late 2022, the benefactors carried out comprehensive repairs to the school, restoring the roof, parapets, fences, and porch, repairing parts of classrooms for lessons and communication systems, as well as re-planning and equipping the central bathroom, replacing windows and part of the doors, and installing modern navigation elements in the building. The foundations purchased and delivered equipment to the school’s team — 20 laptops and musical instruments to improve the material base of the children’s art school.
With the funding provided by the benefactors, the school equipped additional rooms for music classes to increase the number of children studying there. The BGV Charity Fund and German donors also worked to create an inclusive space and organize learning at the Bucha Children’s Art School, with barrier-free access to all types of classes for children with disabilities. At the end of 2022, charitable organizations financed 100 annual scholarships for children to study at the Bucha Children’s Art School.
As part of the second stage of cooperation, planned for January–April 2022, benefactors plan to continue working to improve and expand the accessibility of the children’s educational institution and restore the facade.
The cooperation between the Bucha Children’s Art School, the BGV Charity Fund, and German donors began on June 18, 2022, when help alliance, supported by #WeAreAllUkrainians, initiated a musical event, “Concert For Tomorrow,” at the Munich Philharmonic (Germany). It was a performance by the Munich Symphony Orchestra stars, which joined forces with Ukrainian musicians as part of a charity concert. Among the Ukrainian artists were refugees who fled to Germany due to the war in Ukraine. The concert at the Philharmonic demonstrated solidarity with Ukraine and support for Ukrainian talent. It also raised initial funding for the reconstruction of Bucha Children’s Art School. In August, the main sponsor of the initiative — the national airline of Germany, Lufthansa — joined the charitable project thanks to donations from passengers of their flights.
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The BGV Charity Fund was founded by Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Hennadii Butkevych to organize assistance for Ukraine during the war and rebuild the country after victory. The fund procures, legally supports, and delivers humanitarian aid to Ukraine for those in need — children, vulnerable populations, soldiers, medical institutions, and volunteer organizations. The fund works to protect, restore, and develop Ukraine. Partners of the BGV Charity Fund include responsible businesses from Ukraine and across Europe — companies in Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, and Romania, including market leaders such as Rossmann, Lidl, and Billa.
help alliance is a charity organization initiated by the Lufthansa Group and its employees. As an international company and part of the German and global community, the Lufthansa Group takes responsibility for current social challenges that go beyond its actual activities. Currently, the non-profit organization covers over 50 projects worldwide that provide access to education for socially disadvantaged youth and enable them to lead successful, healthy, and independent lives. In addition to focusing on high-quality education (SDG 4), help alliance also engages in initiatives for vocational training and entrepreneurship development (SDG 8). In recent years, the organization has supported about 150 projects. The work of the help alliance is based on the standards of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Projects are funded exclusively through donations. For more information, visit www.helpalliance.org.
The non-profit organization #WeAreAllUkrainians emerged from a temporary initiative that Volodymyr Klychko founded together with Tatjana Kiel immediately after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Under the leadership of two directors—Tatjana Kiel and Dörte Kruppa—the initiative implements extensive and long-term campaigns and projects with a large network of partners and volunteers in Germany—both for people in Ukraine and from Ukraine. #WeAreAllUkrainians also responds to the most urgent needs in Ukraine, which Volodymyr Klychko focuses on in Kyiv. For more information, visit www.weareallukrainians.de.
