Daily Telegraph - Metal bars, heavy sandbags and air raid shelters – the battle to reopen schools in Ukraine

Back to school preparations have never been more grim. Svitlana Bozhko and her colleagues at the Lviv District Gymnasium spent the summer installing metal bars across windows and blocking others from potential missile blasts with heavy sandbags. Then, the teachers boxed and hauled up the entire school library from its basement to the third floor, to create an enormous air raid shelter.

But despite the risks that lie ahead, Bozhko laughs joyfully at the prospect of the new

term beginning on September 1. “We are really looking forward to it,” she said. “If I

were a teacher in Kharkhiv I wouldn’t be so happy, believe me...”

Read the full story on thetelegraph.co.uk.

And the follow-up piece: Joy and trauma meet as Ukraine’s children return to classrooms.

This article was written as part of my work for the 2022 Early Childhood Global Reporting Fellowship at the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the Columbia Journalism School.