Interview 11. Supporting those in desperate need. Maiia Tutaieva
Today, children and adults are under terrible stress from the war; the tension is sometimes so severe that they cannot eat or drink, and it takes them a long time to recover and adapt to safer conditions. Maiia Tutaieva, an educator from Kropyvnytskyi, deputy head of the administration, head of the Department of Institutional Audit of the State Service for Quality Education in Kirovohrad Region, talks about this problem. Maiia shares her own experience because, in her hospitable home, she has hosted many internally displaced persons from the frontline regions of Ukraine. She underlines that psychological support, gentleness and warmth are more important now than ever, and can help just as much as physical safety measures.
Overcoming fear
My family is my inner source of strength. The eldest daughter and her family in Kyiv felt the horrors of the war from the first hours and were forced to move to Chernivtsi temporarily. The younger daughter is finishing her internship in Vinnytsia; she is a doctor, a medical psychologist. My younger son-in-law is a soldier, and he is protecting us. My husband takes care of his granddaughter. My 80-year-old mother also hosted my friends from Kharkiv in her home.
My family helps me not to slip into depression. I have no right to show my family that I am scared. I must help them feel safe, and at the same time, I sense that they support me. When we didn’t know where my younger daughter’s husband was because he couldn’t contact us, I had to give her my shoulder for support. At the same time, we supported my son-in-law’s family, because he lost his mother three months before the war. God gave me the inner strength to become not just a mother-in-law, but a true mother for him. My family always supports me in what I do and agrees to all my adventures, because everyone understands their responsibilities and wants to help out.
A hospitable home
When the war started, many of our teachers got together: we stewed meat, baked confectionery products, made dry borshch and soups, wove camouflage nets, and sent them to the front. We transferred all the funds to the army. I know many educators among EdCamp men and women, and in the first days, I called everyone who resided in the dangerous territories and invited them to my place. Then, it so happened that my phone number got into some social networks, and I started getting calls from friends of friends and sometimes strangers, asking me to host them at least for a few hours or one night, and I did.
My front was in the kitchen. Every day, I stewed potatoes with meat, boiled pots of borshch, and made both sweet pancakes and potato pancakes so as to feed the people with homemade delicacies. I welcomed them in my home, providing comfort and warmth. I sheltered many families who stayed for a day or two, and even families with several animals simultaneously. For example, my colleague Oksana Myroniak stayed with me with her grandson, who was so terrified that he could not eat or drink, and her dog, who was also very frightened. I was happy that they could settle in a safe place.
Currently, two families from Kharkiv live in our house. When they arrived, they had nothing, so I shared food with them and offered them clothes. There was another family that did not eat for a whole day; they really wanted to, but were afraid to sit down and eat. When I heard that their parents had stayed in Kharkiv and had nothing to eat because they had cooked the last two potatoes, I cried. Then, I contacted the volunteer community in Kharkiv so that they would help those people; I gave them their addresses.
I am currently working offline, and we are trying to help educators survive this difficult time. We help with legal advice, but I feel dissatisfied with myself. It seems to me that I am not doing my best to help others and to win this war. For a long time, we looked for a colleague from Mariupol. She responded at the beginning of May — she wrote that she had decided to stay in the city. Unfortunately, we don’t know what has happened to her now.
For a long time, we looked for a colleague from Mariupol. She responded at the beginning of May — she wrote that she had decided to stay in the city. Unfortunately, we don’t know what has happened to her now.
Integrating the community
Currently, I work in one community and live in another. But, their problems are similar. There is a great need to bring people out of a problematic psychological state, to help those who believe in our victory, and gradually assist those who are desperate or have lost their loved ones.
Many people arrived at the regional center and at our village, and decided to stay. Today, all the vacant houses in our village are occupied. It is essential to properly coordinate community activities so that no one is left behind. After all, people of different ages, social statuses, and needs have come here: some had the means to rent a house, some came in a dressing gown and their grandson’s sneakers, and some needed medicine daily.
In our village, we have an acute problem with our communal services. Most of our villages are not supplied with gas, centralized water or indoor toilets. Such difficulties, it so happens, frighten people who are not used to such conditions. There are problems placing children in the kindergartens, because they are mainly used as shelters for the IDPs, and local working parents cannot take their children to their kindergarten. Teachers can work remotely, but doctors, transport workers and shop owners cannot.
Educational Front
In Kirovohrad Region, preparations are being made for the new school year in war conditions. Educational institutions plan to accept students and organize offline lessons; shelters are available, and safe conditions are created. In addition, local educational organizations conduct information campaigns and wartime safety training for children and adults. In particular, the project – A Safe Summer Vacation-2022 and the course – Learn! Know! Save!, both of which help children and adults to protect themselves.
In order to help Ukrainian educators to continue teaching children during the war, the EdCamp Ukraine community launched a crowdfunding campaign — collecting funds for computer equipment and Internet access for teachers who lost their pedagogical equipment in the war. The funds will be used for psychological support for teachers and to organize conferences where they can share their pedagogical experiences during the war. Both foreign colleagues – on the GoFundMe platform, and Ukrainians – on the EdCamp Ukraine page, can join the campaign by adding the comment My War. Lessons to the payment.
The main lesson
You don’t need to put life on pause; on the contrary, you must live life to the full. Because it is bright, interesting, unique, and can end at any moment. We must live now and today.
Taking care of general health
I see that the psychological state of teachers, parents and children poses a big problem. Everyone is under a lot of stress, especially children who left the war zones. It is challenging for them to adapt; psychologists and teachers must monitor them constantly, detect the problem in time and support everyone without losing their own energy. In addition, lessons are interrupted due to air raid alerts, so it is necessary to arrange for children to go to a safe place.
The teacher’s attitude towards students has changed; it is kinder and healthier. My grandchildren are now in Chernivtsi Region; they left Kyiv under shelling. The teachers told the parents not to wake up their children for school if they managed to fall asleep. Because you must understand that they came from areas where they couldn’t sleep. Therefore, they had fewer lessons and they started later. Then, they gradually restored the scheduled educational process. The presentation of material has also changed – the teachers try to give it compactly and comprehensibly, not to stretch it out for 45 minutes.
There is also the problem of organizing distance learning for students with special educational needs. Earlier, the institutions had assistants who supported the child; now they can do so only remotely and cannot be next to the child; therefore, the burden on the parents of such children has increased.
Psychological support is now more critical than ever. Therefore, several institutions in our region have created telegram channels where they provide psychological recommendations, and there is always a lot of advice available. We get simple daily tips, but they help. It is beneficial for everyone.
Working non-stop
There is a double burden on teachers now. We must not forget that most schools host IDP families, and also house volunteers that weave nets and prepare goodies for our soldiers. Therefore, I can say that our teachers work 48 hours a day.
At the same time, they have established courses for children who came from other schools and studied under different programs. Some had a single online platform at their school; others had a different program. Of course, there are not enough gadgets to conduct online lessons and this is a problem, particularly for teachers, children from large families, and internally displaced persons; low Internet speed, especially in rural areas, is also a problem.
During the war, many educational institutions switched to single educational platforms, using electronic manuals or diaries. This dramatically simplifies the process of recording classes and students’ academic achievements and communicating with parents, and all schedules and links are available in a single system. This enables our teachers to work wherever they are, as well as to exchange information quickly. Such a practice should be carried over to peacetime. I think the “country in a smartphone” concept has a great future.
Our children have built stronger friendships; they have learned to help others, communicate, and worry about each other. Of course, I can’t speak for everyone, but I think that adversity has brought us closer.
Courage as an experience
With educators from other countries, I would like to share the experience of courage, resilience and civic duty that we have now. Also, our strength lies in our capacity to withstand any situation, to analyze and build the best solutions.
A strong nation
I am Ukrainian to the core, and I am proud of it. I felt it for the first time when, in 1994, our figure skater Oksana Baiul took first place at the Olympics in Lillehammer, and it took the officials a long time to find the Ukrainian national anthem. I was furious. And when it finally sounded, I felt an indescribable sense of pride. Over time, this feeling has grown stronger. When we were at the SEEL conference in Delhi, and the Dalai Lama said that Ukraine had the largest delegation, I was bursting with pride at the fact that I was a Ukrainian educator and part of that delegation.
Many moments have reinforced this feeling. Today, it is the trust we place in our Armed Forces, the faith that we will be victorious, because it cannot be otherwise. There is probably no nation in the world as strong as the Ukrainians, a nation that has been destroyed over many centuries, but continues to develop and become stronger and stronger.
Text — Halyna Kovalchuk.
The interview series My War. The Lessons was prepared with financial support from the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation – a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of EdCamp Ukraine and the Foundation.
