Liz Cookman , The Guardian; ‘Children thrive down here’: the secret play centre hidden under Ukraine’s most dangerous city
"In an underground shelter in Kherson, probably the most dangerous city in Ukraine, children are chasing each other between plastic chairs. Outside,mortars, artillery and drones fly their deadly paths back and forth across the Dnipro River that separates the city from Russian forces.
This makeshift underground play centre is one of the few places where children can socialise with each other in safety. For a few hours, it can be as though the war is not happening. When the explosions get too close, teachers working at the centre clap louder or turn up the music to drown out the noise.
As children returned to school across Ukraine this month, one in three are having their fourth consecutive academic year disrupted. In frontline areas such as Kherson, where schools have been damaged in attacks, children have to study largely online...
Across Ukraine as a whole, more than 3,000 children have been killed or injured since the start of full-scale war in 2022 – equivalent to about 150 classrooms of children.
With such dangers, families are forced to spend much of their lives underground or indoors, calculating every errand against mortal danger. Stuck indoors, teachers say children now struggle to socialise, and their speech and confidence have been set back without access to their peers, while some have not yet learned to read.
Narmina Strishenets, a conflict adviser with the UK charity Save the Children, says: “Instead of focusing on play, socialising and passions, children are focused on physical survival.
“Many are now one or two years behind in core subjects,” says Strishenets. “Childhood is under attack and they are losing hope.”
The underground play centre, at a secret location in a residential area of Kherson, is one of the few spaces where children get personal support from teachers and psychologists. It was set up last year by the chair of a local housing association, Oleh Turchynskyi."
