By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — Claremont educators — past and present — are collaboratively using fundraising efforts to assist Ukrainian families as the Ukrainian refugee crisis grows as well as cultivate a teachable moment for students and the community.
More than 4 million Ukrainians to date, predominantly women and children, have been forced to flee their country since the start of their county’s invasion by Russia, while an estimated 6.5 million Ukrainians have been displaced within the country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Ukrainian refugee crisis is Europe’s largest since World War II and one of the world’s largest refugee crises this century. As of Thursday, March 24, more than half of all children in Ukraine had been forced to leave their homes, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Former and current Claremont educators want city students and families to engage in the significance of this event.
“This is a moment of history that is happening right now, that doesn’t seem to be resonating [with our community] as much as it needs to,” said Stevens High School Principal Pat Barry.
In an interview with the Eagle Times, Barry pointed to the parallels between the Ukrainian crisis and the refugee crisis during World War II.
Aside from differing refugee counts, the Ukrainian crisis illustrates the array of impacts and challenges upon refugees and welcoming countries that often gets lost in contemporary teaching of World War II and the Holocaust, Barry explained.
“Making those connections is the purpose of education,” Barry said. “We want to graduate citizens of the world, with our students looking beyond just Claremont at what is taking place.”
Raising funds to aid Ukrainian refugees is as much to raise educational awareness in Claremont as it is to provide aid, said a number of Claremont educators.
David Hardy, a retired Claremont social studies teacher, recently launched a GoFundMe page named “Claremont NH School District Ukraine Refugee Help,” which is being promoted within the Claremont School District along with several in-school fundraising campaigns.
Hardy has an uncle in Le Mans, France, who intends to open his home to a Ukrainian family, in coordination with a local nonprofit Association TARMAC, which is administering the placement, Hardy told the Eagle Times.
Hardy’s GoFundMe page is raising funds to assist the family’s living and transition. The funds will be sent to an account for the family set up by the nonprofit.
The transition for these families will be incredibly arduous, Hardy noted, particularly of the family separations, with able-bodied Ukrainian men staying behind to support the military effort.
“So where does that leave a Ukrainian now living in Le Mans?” Hardy said. “Yes, they have E.U. assistance. They have a three-year visa and can join the health care system. But where does that leave them so far as income is concerned? What is it going to take for them to get on their feet?”
While still not knowing the family being placed, Hardy targeted a funding goal of $44,616, an estimate based on the average cost of living in Le Mans.
Hardy’s fundraiser has been approved by SAU 6 and Claremont schools are helping to promote this fundraiser to Claremont families.
Hardy also wants this fundraiser to be a tool of raising awareness about the challenges facing refugees.
“As a teacher you know that anytime something newsworthy is going on in the world, you grab a hold of it,” Hardy said. “My focus here is not the war but the mass migration of some 10-plus million refugees, which fits into curriculum around the movement and migrations of people, which opens the doorway to [making connections between present and past learning].”
Students and staff at Stevens High School are also helping to raise funds for Hardy’s project. In addition to a blue and yellow ribbon sale, donations will be accepted this weekend at the Stevens senior play, Leaving Iowa, which runs on Friday and Saturday at the Stevens auditorium, with a start time of 7 p.m.
Stevens also plans to hold a community bake sale in the near future.
At Claremont Middle School, Library Media Specialist Oksana Kevorkian has helped organize its own fundraiser, “Change for Peace,” a coin-collecting competition between the school’s three student cohorts and the staff. Each group has its own collection bucket, which were donated to the school by Runnings, a Claremont home and outdoors retailer.
For Kevorkian, a native of Ukraine, the invasion resonates on a personal level. Her parents still live in the Ukraine, and while they live to the west of the central combat, some artillery has fallen close to her parents’ region, Kevorkian said.
“It’s just a horror of today’s world that no one expected it would happen to this degree,” Kevorkian said. “Right now it’s really starting to settle in. Which is scary because we don’t want it to settle in. We want it to end.”
The total proceeds from “Change for Peace” will be equally divided among three charities that currently provide relief to Ukrainian refugees and citizens: United Help Ukraine, United Nations Children’s Fund, and CARE.
Kevorkian said she is grateful for the abundant support she has received from the community, inside the school district and outside it, including students, colleagues, administrators, and even employees at Runnings.
“I feel that I don’t deserve it as much as the people in the Ukraine who are fighting,” Kevorkian said. “But I want to thank everybody for their support. They are just unbelievably supportive and that’s how I am able to come to work every day and be here.”
To contribute to the GoFundMe, visit the website gofund.me/b6fddf89 to find “Claremont NH School District Ukraine Refugee Help.”
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