14 de July de 2026
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, launching the largest attack by one European country against another on the same continent since World War II. The war between Russia and Ukraine has already claimed more than 300,000 fatalities* in just over a year of conflict, including attacks by land, air, and sea.
In this context, Ukraine’s Ministry of Education has been investing in efforts to continue engaging with students in its public school system through online tools aimed at children in the war zone, completely away from school; in relocation, living in other cities, often with relatives and transitioning between different schools; and in a refugee situation. The available content serves students from elementary school onward and, also concerned about younger children, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is leading an initiative to make the materials and content produced by the Education Laboratory available to support families with children aged 0 to 6 in promoting meaningful interactions in the informal learning contexts in which they find themselves.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Education was seeking strategies that would invite and support family engagement to mitigate the impact of disruptions to children’s schooling in the country.
“This became an important opportunity for us to put our work at the service of a very pressing need at this moment for children in conflict regions who are out of school,” says Nicole Paulet Piedra, LabEdu’s Director of Content.
The fact that our resources can be shared in digital format is a facilitator. According to the OECD, adapting and translating these materials is more feasible than trying to produce educational materials from scratch.
There is currently concern among Ukrainian educators about children’s identity as Ukrainians, since many of them do not know when they will return to the country. Thus, activities focused on valuing families’ stories through sharing childhood games or songs, interviewing grandparents, among others that make up the LabEdu collection, were of particular interest to the project’s curatorship. The approach, which references the platform and the deck of cards of the 7 Fundamental Childhood Experiences, integrates dimensions of learning and holistic development, also contributing to the socio-emotional sphere.
LabEdu, honored to be able to contribute to this highly complex and important humanitarian cause, agreed to authorize the reproduction and adaptation of its intellectual property at no cost, for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Authorized for use through 2027:
> 12 video animations and 50 graphic pieces depicting everyday situations to help adults identify learning opportunities and stimulate children’s curiosity. The animations and cards were taken from the Learning with 7 Fundamental Experiences platform;
> 184 activities for adults to interact meaningfully with children in everyday moments and places. Each activity is accompanied by a brief explanation of the learning potential behind each suggestion. These activities were originally published in the Apprendendo mobile app.
With this action, LabEdu reaffirms its mission as a Brazilian non-governmental organization to develop methodologies that promote meaningful learning inside and outside school for children aged 0 to 10. In the best—and also the most challenging—contexts involving public education. We are committed to assessing the return on the use of the materials and the data regarding the number of people who will benefit from this collaboration. And, from now on, we are confident that our content will translate into family engagement actions in what is one of the most important missions we can foresee: keeping children in continuous learning.
* data taken from a report in Exame magazine: https://exame.com/mundo/guerra-na-ucrania-300-mil-mortos-segundo-exercito-noruegues/