First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska met with Mariam Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the construction of new homes for Ukrainian foster families.
The First Lady noted the importance of Mariam Almheiri’s visit and thanked the UAE government and President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for their support: in the spring, the Emirati government approved a charitable contribution of $4 million for the construction of ergonomic modern houses with shelters for large foster families (so-called FTCHs) as part of the Address of Childhood project by the Olena Zelenska Foundation.
The wife of the President of Ukraine noted that as a result of the Russian attack, the houses of 55 families were destroyed or damaged, leaving about 550 children homeless.
The Address of Childhood project is extremely relevant today.
It is important for us that every child grows up in a family. Through the Address of Childhood project and the provision of houses for large families, we are not only restoring the housing destroyed by Russian missiles, but also encouraging families to learn more about different family forms of upbringing so that every child has a family," the First Lady said.
The construction will begin in July. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
Olena Zelenska also informed Mariam Almheiri of other projects of the foundation. In particular, the construction of shelters for schools. There are 13,560 secondary education institutions in Ukraine, of which 3,594 do not have shelters.
Another project of the foundation is laptops for education. Due to the destruction of 1600 Ukrainian schools by the aggressor, the educational process has become impossible for many children. To provide online learning, the Olena Zelenska Foundation donated 38,856 laptops for teachers and 500 laptops for students. HP and Microsoft became partners of the Digital Equity for Ukraine project.
"We still need 82 thousand 8 laptops for teachers and 561 thousand 562 for schoolchildren, so the foundation continues to look for foreign partners who are ready to continue helping Ukrainians," the First Lady said.
Mariam Almheiri, for her part, said that the UAE government is ready to provide 2,500 laptops for schoolchildren. They will have online learning programs available.
Olena Zelenska expressed gratitude for the help: "Only together with our friends can we overcome what the aggressor has done. And we are already doing it."