Multilingual Open Education Resources Created to Support in Ukrainian Refugee Crisis
Since February 2022, the war in Ukraine has forced millions of children and families to flee their homes. Whether internally displaced or living in a neighboring country, every child deserves and needs the stability of safe, supportive, nurturing learning spaces. Teachers and caregivers, when provided with the support and care they themselves need, can help to ensure children are able to continue learning alongside new friends and with hope of peace and a brighter future ahead.
Since the start of the war, the Center for Professional Learning at Childhood Education International has engaged in dialogue with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, with NGO and INGO colleagues, and with teachers and teacher education and leadership networks across Ukraine and in surrounding nations receiving refugees fleeing the war. We aim to support teacher professional learning within nationally and regionally identified areas of need, including around trauma-informed practice, psychosocial support, and social and emotional learning. Our Open Education Resources (OERs) created within our Refugee Educator Academy focus on quality holistic learning for children and youth and were designed by teachers in displacement, migration, and resettlement contexts for teachers working in these challenging spaces. We have translated selected materials into Ukrainian, Polish, and Romanian based on immediate priorities voiced by partners and are making them available here for download and use. You can see more of our professional learning opportunities at https://learning.ceinternational1892.org.
The Center for Professional Learning can provide guidance and support for use of these OER materials, including how best to contextualize the material, facilitate professional development sessions and communities of practice, assess impact and outcomes, or otherwise support teaching and learning. The Center for Professional Learning provides these fee-for-service options based on project parameters. Please contact us if you are interested in additional services to support implementation: Dr. Diana D. Woolis, Director, Center for Professional Learning, dwoolis@ceinternational1892.org.
With your support, we can broaden our catalog of contextualized OERs that aid the educators who work with Ukrainian refugee children and families.
Translated Open Education Resources from our course catalog:
- Introduction to Trauma-Informed Practices
- Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Early Childhood Development
- Introduction to Social and Emotional Learning and Psychosocial Support for Quality Holistic Learning
Guidance and psychosocial support resources for educators, program staff, and caregivers in emergency and displacement contexts:
Individual Resources
- Guidance for protecting displaced and refugee children in and outside of Ukraine (UNICEF – English)
- Early Childhood Development in Emergencies (UNICEF – English)
- Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide (WHO – English)
- The MHPSS Minimum Service Package (INEE – English, Spanish, Ukrainian)
- Key Protection Messages to IDPs and Conflict-Affected Populations (INEE – English, Ukrainian)
- How you can support your child during bombing? (INEE – English, Ukrainian, Russian)
- Communicating with children about death, and helping children cope with grief (INEE – English, Ukrainian)
- Opowiadania dla dzieci “Bohaterowie” (potrzebafantazji – Polish)
- NGO “Osvitoriya”: educational resource with the activities and games, which could help to overcome a stress of children (Ukrainian Institute of Education Development – Ukrainian)
- Українська – Допомога для дітей та батьків, щоб впоратися з труднощами (Ukraine Parenting – Ukrainian)
- Building Bridges: Bridging the Gap – Supporting wellbeing, learning, development and integration of young refugee and migrant children (International Step by Step Association – English, Greek
Other Collections of Resources
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Humanitarian response in Ukraine and neighboring countries (Psychosocial Centre – English, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, and Ukrainian)
- Child Protection Resources for Ukraine (The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action – English, Ukrainian, Polish)
- Ukrainian Crisis Resource Centre (Child Helpline International – English, Ukrainian, Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Russian, and more)
- mhpss.net Emergency Briefing Kit for Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis (MHPSS – English, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Czech)
- Child-Friendly Materials for Children Affected by the Crisis in Ukraine (Child Protection – English, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Czech, French)
