While excelling at their schools and colleges, UGSers are also making a difference by helping Ukrainian students access safer education in their home communities. Miloslav Tkach (UGS ’21, Harrow School ’24, Princeton ’28) organized a fundraiser at Harrow School in the UK, raising an initial £13,000 to equip a shelter in Mykolaiv Oblast. His initiative sparked a ripple effect, attracting additional support from institutional donors.
While completing his final year at Harrow School, Miloslav launched a fundraiser to equip a shelter in the village of Tsentralne. With the school’s support, his initiative successfully raised £13,000. This effort inspired the Ukrainian charity savED to continue fundraising, aiming to transform the shelter into a fully equipped facility.
The village of Tsentralne is located in the Mykolaiv oblast, 35 km from Kherson, and survived nine months of occupation. About 140 children from Tsentralne and nearby villages go to this school, and all of them have been studying exclusively online for over four years – first because of the pandemic and later because there was no shelter amid the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine.
However, the school had a basement, which our partners at savED transformed into a modern shelter, allowing students to continue their studies safely. What began with Miloslav’s fundraiser later attracted major donors, who helped complete the project and even equip an underground IT room.
