GBC-Education hosts crisis briefing for businesses: education and Ukrainian refugees

The attack on Ukraine is endangering the lives and futures of the country’s 7.5 million children. As of April 4, 2022, more than 4.2 million people have fled the country, including more than 1.5 million children. Inside the country, recent figures show over 860 educational facilities have been damaged. 

On March 18, GBC-Education hosted Crisis Brief for Business: Education and Ukrainian Refugees to provide an update and an analysis of the implications and opportunities for business support. Executive Director Justin van Fleet shared an overview of the education for refugee children and discussed how business can strategically support the ongoing relief efforts with representatives from member companies in attendance. 

Since the onset of the crisis, GBC-Education has been working closely with our humanitarian and multilateral partners in Ukraine and surrounding host countries to identify ways for businesses to support the education of Ukrainian children and youth. Through these efforts, we have identified several emerging areas of need: 

• Support for Ukrainian refugee teachers to continue providing lessons and accelerated learning in Poland and other surrounding host countries, utilizing the double-shift school
• Safe places for learning and extracurricular activities in Ukraine and surrounding host countries
• Psychosocial support for teachers, parents, and students
• Provision of learning materials and distance learning
• Early childhood education materials
• Data management.

To help businesses deliver support to local organizations along these needs, GBC-Education has established a Disaster Relief and Education Response Fund, which allows companies to make an immediate contribution to a disaster relief effort, provides due-diligence and vetting of partners able to make the most impact, and reports results to companies for their internal and external reporting.  

To learn more about how your company can get involved, please contact [email protected].