„War and Dreams“– Children’s Drawings from Ukraine
How do children see the war in Ukraine? This became visible at the EUSTORY network conference which took place from 6-10 March in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova. Two Ukrainian teachers, who work with long-standing EUSTORY member NOVA DOBA, brought along drawings by their pupils. In their drawings, the children deal with the destruction caused by the war and the disregard for children’s rights, but also with Ukrainian sovereignty and the hope for peace.
The digital exhibition now presents the drawings of the children.
Children's drawings
The children and teenagers are from the small town of Kozelets, 80 kilometres north of Kyiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. When they learnt about their teachers’ work trip abroad, they gave them drawings to take with them to the EUSTORY network conference.
The works were created during art classes as well as history lessons. They move between peaceful dream worlds and the reality of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Ukrainian national symbols such as wheat ears and sunflowers are linked to hopes and visions of the future.
NOVA DOBA – Ukrainian founding member of the EUSTORY Network
The drawings were presented from April to June 2024 as a pop-up exhibition on the premises of Körber-Stiftung to honour the work of the children and the long-standing Ukrainian partners of Körber-Stiftung.
Ukraine is a founding member of EUSTORY. Member organisation NOVA DOBA, the All-Ukrainian Association of Teachers of History, Civic Education and Social Studies, has been organising successful history competitions since 1997. Since 2017, the competition has been organised as part of a cooperation project with Körber-Stiftung and DVV International and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
The Ukrainian History Competition has continued even after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. At the beginning of June of this year, the winning entries from the current competition were honoured at a digital awards ceremony. Despite war and flight, more than 600 children and teenagers took part.
With financial support from Körber-Stiftung, NOVA DOBA has been organising additional educational programmes for internally displaced persons, youth media seminars and training for teachers from areas affected by occupation and combat since 2022.
Visit the post on the website of Körber-Stiftung to see all drawings.