″They feel at home, they listen to their mother tongue, they are in another world″
Children fleeing the war in Ukraine represent 35.2% of refugees received in Portugal, but only 10% have enrolled in Portuguese schools. They hope to be able to return to the country soon. It does not happen, they attend as Ukrainian classes and accompanying while from the original school at a distance. It takes place every Saturday at EB Pedro Santarém, in Benfica, school that went from 60 to 210 Ukrainian students, a number that became very marked with the war.
“New students are always arriving. Within today [sábado] more arrived. About 150 refugees, I can’t say how many there are because it’s always changing. We also have a school that came and left, the parents a student who returns to Ukraine, explains Pidpery, history teacher, teacher of this school created in Portugal. There are 13 classes in total.
On Saturdays, between 9:00 am and 4:30 pm, the classrooms, playgrounds and cafeteria are filled with Ukrainian children who follow the education of their country, between preschool and 11th grade, as if it were a day of school week. Before the start of the invasion of Ukraine, on December 24, many also attended Portuguese education, which is no longer the majority.
The teacher explains that follow as classes connected of the schools they attended in Ukraine, with the exception of those that were destroyed by the bombs, these are located in the east of the country, in Mariupol and Kharkiv. They made an agreement with three educational establishments in Lviv that these children and young people can attend classes online.
“My school was destroyed”
Lena Nadezdina, 16, is in grade 11 and lives in Kharkiv. She arrived two weeks ago, get ready to complete the Ukrainian school year, which was supposed to end in May, at least before June 1st. With the war, since the teachers do not know if they will be prolonged.
Its current class nine students and, in the weeks, it became 21 years old. new rooms.
Only 10% enroll in Portuguese schools
The young woman arrived in Portugal with her mother and younger sister, who is in the 8th grade at the same establishment. “The area where I lived was bombed, my school was destroyed. I was very scared and I just wanted a safe place to live.” Don’t choose Poland – they fled to Poland, crossed Germany and arrived in France, where a volunteer van brought them to Lisbon.
He didn’t choose the country but he likes what he sees and now he admits it if his parents see fit. “I was very well received, everything is ok, colleagues are friendly OK”, says Lena. Her mother is already working in a pastry shop. Her biggest concern is her father, forced to stay in Ukraine. And that they keep giving news of their country, only destruction: “Lots of destruction, but our apartment is not destroyed.”
The teacher explains on these Saturdays that we are done with the war school, find a little of what we do for ourselves, why we are behind. “She sees Portugal, an unknown person who speaks another language, on a day-to-day basis she cannot understand what is happening around her. Mother, they are in the other world, in their world.”
Each classroom has the registration of the Portuguese and the Ukrainian classes, the latter with blue and yellow nuclei. The country is also featured on the posters, with corners dedicated to Ukrainian history and culture. And who become small to receive goods with donated goods, namely toys.
On Saturday, Easter celebrations began on the date of the Roman Catholic Church, which yesterday celebrated Palm Sunday. In Ukraine it takes place next Sunday and, instead of the olive branch, there is a willow branch, which is not easy to find in Portugal. The children made their branches with cones filled with chocolate eggs.
The admission of a refugee student to school is preceded by a school with the parents (almost always the mothers), to find out what the family situation is, how to live and in conditions, if anything changes. Students who regularly attend school help to integrate new arrivals. And who arrives after the last to enter.
“The younger students adapt faster, they are the 7th/8th graders, they are not so closed to change”, says Neya Pidperyghora. The older ones will also be the most reluctant to attend classes in Portugal.
A reality is visible in the rooms more than more and also, like the new ones, in the cafeteria. It opens at 12:15 pm and it’s where everyone can eat whether it’s the foods I mention from home, like meals designed by a company. The secondary meal time is given by the corresponding teachers, 17 (six in the 1st cycle and 11 in the basic and), in addition to the three who are with preschool. All volunteers, all women, with the exception of the Computer Science teacher.
“I sleep with my cell phone”
Neya Pidperyghora, 40, has been in Portugal for 17 years, lives with her husband and son, 22, a university student, in Alenquer, where she works as an administrator. There are 14 classes at school she remembers going through such a difficult time and she can’t.
“A student who is from Mariupol came to me and said: “Professor, it was very difficult to get to Portugal, we are alive, we are fine, that’s what matters, but everything is destroyed. You can’t imagine.” A 10-year-old child who watches all this! I just want to hug them. I give them my phone number so they can call whenever they need to, even if it’s just to talk,” she says.
He thinks that more refugees have family members in Portugal, that they can count on a close network, that they will be able to work, they may stay for a while. But the others want to return quickly to Ukraine, as soon as the war is over. “We hope that it will end quickly, but we know that it cannot be today or tomorrow. We wake up with the hope of hearing: the victory is ours. It is a hope”, recognizes the teacher.
He’s from Khmelnitskiy, a city next to Poland, where his parents still live (who don’t want to leave Ukraine). They have been away from the bombings and the Russian invasion, but very afraid of the future. “I sleep with the phone on, afraid that anything will happen at night – like most things happen at dawn. My day starts with a phone call to my parents. Happy when I hear them say, “It’s okay, we had a good night.” “.
Neya accompanies her parents four thousand kilometers away, on Portuguese and international television, but above all on Telegram, a social network that provides information in real time. For example, she hears like sirens for people to take shelter at the same time as in Ukraine. “The images, are alerts, do not fail to follow. But already see the alerts.”
Seniors with priority
Pavlo Sadokha, president of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, highlights the low presence of Ukrainian children in Portuguese education. “We had a meeting at the Ministry of Education, where they told us that only 1,000 were enrolled in schools. It’s not that they don’t want to sign up, the problem is that they’re not guaranteed yet. Another problem is Social Security, it doesn’t sign up. There are people who believe they will return to Ukraine within a month, I even have requests from two who want to return.”
Refugees from Ukraine registered with the Foreigners and Borders Service are close to reaching 30,000, mostly women, many children. But there is one group that the association wants to highlight: those aged 65 and over. “When young people are not leaders, there is no talk about the spoken people of the third age, but there is nothing about the spoken people of the third age, there is nothing for belonging children, but there is no talk of children for age, there is nothing for children. 65 years old, that is, 5%.
The center will be called Union of Ukrainians in Portugal and the project was presented to the Lisbon City Council, from whom they asked for installations. It will provide psychological, legal, humanitarian support and will have classes, including a university for the elderly.
It is an extension of the work developed not call center created from the first moment for refugees. It aims to “train the formation of refugee groups, in Western Ukraine, organizing arrival at the Polish border and then, in cooperation with Portuguese authorities and volunteers to Portugal, finding adequate accommodation, providing basic necessities at the posts of humanitarian aid”, says the project. will work at the center are the refugees who are already helping and helping those who arrive.
The association will apply for the program of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for Ukrainians to respond to the six years they do not find in day care centers or kindergartens in the areas of the country where they live, along the lines of the ABC-Learning, Playing, Growing Groups.