Relationship between Sooke students and Ukrainian peers solidified, expanded

When war broke out in Ukraine nearly one year ago, schools had to adapt quickly. One school just outside the city of Lutsk switched to online learning.

“That’s because our bomb shelter was too small,” said Anna Terpiak, a Grade 10 student at the school.

This school year, students are back to in-person learning, staggering class times throughout the day in order to accommodate everyone. This year, the school's bomb shelter has been expanded.

“It was never supposed to be a bomb shelter, of course. This is just the basement of the school,” said Svitlana Tokbyk, the director of the school.

Ravi Parmar is the chair of the Sooke School District Board of Education. He is part of a humanitarian team that recently travelled to Ukraine and saw the bomb shelter first hand.

“I’ve just been told that students regularly spend up to five hours of their day in the shelter during an air alert,” said Parmar.

Later, in a classroom, the team met with students to build upon a unique relationship that began June of last year.

“The Sooke School District students and staff have established a relationship with some of these schools through important partnerships,” said Parmar.

The goal now is to look at doing virtual learning together, using Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

That connection was solidified by an exchange of letters between children from Willway Elementary School in Langford and those in Ukraine.

Parmar was also at the school to distribute school supplies donated by Monk Office.

The following day, the team travelled three hours to a community just 30 kilometres south of the Belarus border.

Victor Pas is the mayor of that community and he says he is constantly being asked by his constituents if a Russian and Belarussian invasion will come from the north.

“He doesn’t know the answer to this question,” said a translator for Pas.

The threat is real, making a large bomb shelter below a local school in his community that much more important.

A bomb shelter in a school 30 kilometres south of the Belarus border in Ukraine is shown. (CTV)

“To know that on a daily basis students are cramming into these spaces to be able to protect themselves, their teachers and their loved ones, it’s just mind boggling," said Parmar.

He and fellow humanitarian Bob Beckett have now offered an invite to the two school districts that were visited.

“We hope to be able to welcome two Ukrainian students before the end of this school year to our community,” said Parmar.

In partnership with the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, two students will be invited to travel to Vancouver Island to share their stories and to meet the children who penned those letters to them in person.  

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