Consider This from NPR - Ukrainian Teacher Plans For A Future In Romania

Episode Date: April 16, 2022

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have left their country since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. While many hope to return to Ukraine, they don't know when it will be safe to do so. As the war shows no sign of stopping, some refugees are beginning to integrate into life in their adoptive countries. One of those people is Anastasiia Konovalova. She used to be the head teacher at a primary school in Odesa, Ukraine, but fled to Bucharest, Romania after the war began. In a matter of weeks, she's managed to get a school for Ukrainian refugees up and running. With more than 600 Ukrainian children on a waitlist to attend, Konovalova is now thinking about what a future in Romania could look like for these refugee children. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last week a group of us traveled to Romania to see how the country is handling the arrival of tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian attacks on their country. Our first stop, the main train station in Bucharest, the nation's capital. Local producer and interpreter Vlad Bolokhan showed us around. We are in Gara de Nord, that is the biggest train station in Bucharest. That means it's the biggest train station in Romania. This is also the only railway station in Romania where the train lines, they end,

so they're not just passing through. Just about every bit of usable space has been converted into something to assist refugees. A remarkable feat of organization for something that came together in a matter of days. Blue and yellow signs read Refugee Help Center with information posted in multiple languages. There are corridors lined with orange medical tents and yellow-vested interpreters standing ready to field questions. The waiting rooms have been converted into separate areas for women and children and mixed families. In the back of one of the waiting areas for women and children, there's a carpeted play area. Along one wall are shelves filled with diapers, baby formula, apples and bananas, and pet food. In the

first of several rows of chairs, two girls are hunched over the same smartphone, picking at what must have been breakfast. One of those girls is 11-year-old Sofia Katliarova. We come to find out that she is an actress and singer and rather famous back in Kyiv. When she sees our recording equipment, she grabs her rose gold microphone, finds the song she wants, and starts to sing. A young boy and girl line up beside her.

Two mothers pull out a Ukrainian flag and stand behind Sofia as she belts into her Bluetooth mic. Women in the back near the play area stand up and put their hands over their hearts. Some women start to cry. As we visit with families at the train station, we hear the same hope over and over, that they will be able to return to Ukraine someday, hopefully soon. Consider this. More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have left their country since Russia began its invasion. What will it take for them to find their way in a new country,

even if for only a short time? One Ukrainian teacher is planning for the possibility that Bucharest, Romania will be a permanent home for her and her students. That's coming up. From NPR, I'm Michelle Martin. It's Saturday, April 16th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies.

Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. For children, it's really important to be in a safe and familiar environment. And the safest and the most familiar environment for any child is a school. Anastasia Konovalov is teaching English to four-, five- and six-year-olds in Bucharest, Romania. Back in February, she was the head teacher of the Ostrovak Primary School in Odessa, Ukraine. But when Russia began its invasion, she decided to leave. I have a child and I wasn't thinking about anything but my child. That changed when she arrived in Romania. We came three weeks

ago and it was still a horrible mess at the border. So they weren't thinking about education, obviously. But we were. And I think subconsciously we already knew we were opening a school because we brought math books. I brought one sweater and a big box of math books. After arriving in Bucharest, Anastasia helped evacuate 40 other people from Odessa by bus. There were plenty of kids who needed to go to school, but nowhere to meet. She started looking for help and wound up at Gare du Nord, the train station,

which has become a main hub for refugee assistance. And we said, we're teachers, we can teach. And they said, yeah, but it's not our priority. And then we, it was very hard time for us. We weren't stable mentally. So at some point I started to yell at the station that there are a lot of children here which need our help and we can teach, just give us space. And a random guy from the train station said, OK, stop yelling and scaring people.

You see, here is the post from our major and he wrote that there will be two centers for Ukrainian refugees organized and you should go there and, you know, go away. By the evening, the big center for children with a lot of toys and furniture and everything was organized with the help of volunteers, just random people. And so, yeah, we came there and we started. It wasn't meant to be a school and there were only five children on day one, 12 on day two, 47 on day three. And that's when the center was too small for us. So Anastasia struck up a partnership with a Romanian high school.

After the high schoolers go home for the day, Anastasia's classes for the little ones begin. We come from three till six, and we teach three lessons every day. Not PE, not art, because we're not artistic people. But basic program, core subjects, Ukrainian, math, science, English. Open, shut them, give a little clap, clap, clap. Spread out through eight classrooms, there are 227 students. 600 more are on a waiting list. We have 35 students in each class and 32 chairs in each class.

But so far, there was no day when everybody showed up. So when this happens, it's going to be a lot of fun. The classroom we visit is spacious and bright, with high ceilings and a handful of decorations in blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine. Desks are lined up in rows, and kids squirm in their seats, some working on coloring their worksheets, others vying for the teacher's attention. Turquoise backpacks donated by UNICEF are sitting on the floor and hanging on the backs of chairs. We teach English every day because the huge problem which Ukrainians are facing everywhere is the language barrier. Some countries are more prepared for students who don't know the language, Fast, fast, fast, fast! Slow, slow, slow! Some countries are more prepared for students who don't know the language, but Romania didn't have that many students without knowing the language,

so they have no idea how to teach Romanian as an ESL. The government, the Ministry of Education is trying to do something with that. Hopefully, I mean, it's still better than we teach them Romanian, because we don't know it. The best scenario is that in September they'll go to Romanian schools, knowing basic Romanian to survive and to understand what's going on. Anastasia was one of the few people we spoke with who was willing to plan far into the future,

a future that includes a life in Romania. With the Ministry of Education, we're talking about a long-lasting plan of smooth integration of our children in the Romanian system of education. We're making plans for September because we're preparing for the worst and hope for the best. Because everybody told us there's going to be a war war has anybody packed a suitcase no so now we're taught if somebody tells you something listen prepare for the worst because we now every time every day we think if only we did that if only we did that if only we did that we didn't because who would believe in a full-scale war with our dear neighbour, with whom we share so much?

We're going to the ghost hunt. We're going to the ghost hunt. We're going to catch a big one. We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We are not scared! Oh no! Coming up, how the school is addressing the trauma and needs of its students and mothers.

Until Anastasia Konovalov can get her students integrated into the Romanian school system, she pays staff with donations. But she tells us they'd do the work even if they weren't getting any money, because they know how important stability is for all children. But especially these children, who had been sheltering from missiles in basements and train stations, then uprooted from their homes and separated from their fathers, older brothers, uncles and grandfathers. To Anastasia, the effects of the war are obvious. There is a lot of hatred, because for children it's all black and white. So what they see, and you can see even adults,

you see that there is a discrimination against Russians all over the world. And as a Ukrainian, my Ukrainian heart supports it, but my brain understands that it's not right. But for children, it's even worse because everything Russian is bad. And it's also a huge problem for some of them because a lot of them are Russian-speaking and they have this identity crisis now.

Like, if I speak Russian, am I bad? Or they say if I speak Russian, I'm bad. Or they say, you speak Russian, you're bad. Odessa, where so many of them are from, is a Russian-speaking city in Ukraine. Many of the students don't even know how to speak Ukrainian. So they can't speak Ukrainian, they don't know Romanian, and they feel ashamed to speak Russian. We heard the news about Bucha on the weekends. We really didn't know how to come to school because we had children from Bucha. We didn't know how to look in their eyes. Nobody slept

for two days because you saw the pictures and it's happening to your people. And we have some sessions now scheduled with the Romanian psychologists who speak Russian, so they will deal with the traumas because a lot of people come from Bucha, Mariupol, Irpin, and they've gone through a lot. And nobody taught me what to say to a child who said, I slept for three weeks in a basement and we didn gone through a lot and nobody taught me what to say to a child who said I slept for three weeks in the basement and we didn't have shower and we didn't have anything to eat I don't know what to say so I can hug I can support but there should be some professional support for these kids and

for those mothers as well school is helpful though because for children it's easier. You know, it was bad but now it's good. For mothers it's much more difficult. Everywhere in the world the communities are organized around churches and around schools. That's why I wanted to become this center where women can come and they find support. Yulia Vasilieva is one of those women. Her daughter went to Anastasia's school in Odessa and now attends classes in Bucharest every afternoon. Like many women we met in Romania, Yulia had to choose between the safety of her youngest child

and the men in her family. I have a son, 18 years. He stay in Odessa. While her daughter studies, Yulia volunteers, assisting students in class zero. Four, five, six years baby children. Yulia worked at an IT company back in Odessa. Helping at the school gives her something to look forward to every day. But Anastasia says many of the other Ukrainian mothers seem stuck. And on top of teaching children, she sometimes has to step in and help these women with the transition to Romania. You know, sometimes you just need a person who would say, OK, look at my eyes, go and look for a job. But still, there are too many women who are just frozen. Like, we get the free diapers okay here are the address where do I here is

the address yes you have to pay for the bus it's not free for Ukrainians yes of course actually how many calls I've got when we've had a conversation. So, yeah, so we can see one, two, three, four, five. Because Ukraine is a very patriarchatic society. We are used to men deciding. And now there are our men at home, most of them without jobs. So it's basically there will be a point where women will have to work and send money for the men to survive in Ukraine. If it's not over soon.

Where are the children? Where are your children? Are you behind the blackboard? No! Another thing that every Ukrainian has at the moment, apart from dead people, is the feeling of guilt. If you leave the country, you're guilty because you left. If you don't leave, you're guilty because your children are in danger. If you fight, you're guilty because you're not dead,

like your comrades, if you, you know. So everybody feels guilty, and we are lucky we have something to do. But some people are just staring at the news day and day after day and it just drives them crazy. So we're organizing a park cleaning activities on when everybody will go and clean and return something to this wonderful society. Because also for our children it's no good to receive presents every day. Some of them say, why do you need to go to school? You can get everything for free. And I say, no, this is not how the world works.

That's why we're like, OK, we're going to clean the park. And so they did. Anastasia Konovalov, students and their mothers, spent last Saturday cleaning up one of Bucharest's parks, building community in their temporary home of Romania, waiting for the day they can go back to Ukraine or whatever comes next. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We can't go under it. We should go through it. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Michelle Martin.