Austin Scholar #73: Helping 500 Ukrainian refugee kids
& what you should take away from this story
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: Helping 500 Ukrainian refugee kids
What you should take away from this story
I’d like to apologize. In my rush back from Hungary, I published a draft-quality newsletter last week. Below is the final version of Austin Scholar #73.
Austin’s Anecdote: Helping 500 Ukrainian refugee kids
The big question of the week: what’s the big secret Austin’s been hinting at for the past three weeks? Well, the answer starts to form about three months ago, when I was invited to go to Budapest to create a program for Ukrainian refugee students at the Learning Without Borders school in order to bring part of the Alpha program to the kids.
I, of course, agreed, as I wanted to put all of my learnings from my school and this newsletter into practice–into something that could impact people’s lives.
Little did I know what was going to come.
After I decided to do this program–along with my sister and our friend, H–we immediately started planning. Our goal was to create a program to help Ukrainian refugee kids learn to use online apps to learn English and math. We’d start by implementing this program within the Learning Without Borders school, before kickstarting it to reach hundreds of kids throughout Hungary and Ukraine.
Because of the war and COVID, these kids haven’t had stability in years. Their lives were chaotic and their knowledge was all over the place.
Our program was designed to show the kids that it was possible to learn online–to catch up on their education no matter where they are or what their circumstances might be, so they can live the life they dream of. These kids have so much potential to do great things–to take their incredible strength and make their mark on the world in whatever way they choose.
We just have to show them it’s possible.
On June 18th, 2023, H, my sister, and I flew to Budapest. On our own. To (hopefully) change some lives.
The first step: helping the kids at the Learning Without Borders school.
The first two days at the school were pretty rough, I’m not going to lie. We couldn’t talk to the kids, so translation was a big challenge, and we didn’t know if the kids liked us or liked what they were doing in our sessions. It was a lot. But, we eventually got into a groove. And once we started using online apps, the kids would literally run into the room and open their computer to learn English–even if we hadn’t started the timer.
Now, back to the second night we were in Budapest when we talked to my dad.
He reminded us of our initial goal: to do more, impact more, with our three weeks in Budapest. We had received some pushback from some of the adults in Hungary, who thought our goals were too ambitious and didn’t want us to be disappointed when they didn’t pan out.
But we shouldn’t let that stop us, he said. We wanted to create and host a 500-kid event. Use that event to sign kids up for a long-term program. Make a documentary about the program we'd use to fundraise. Reach thousands of kids affected by the Ukraine war. Oh, and we would also have to actually go to Ukraine to see the kids we’d be helping.
His call really helped to empower the three of us to keep moving forward.
I won’t bore you with all of the planning details, but the next two weeks were a whirlwind of emails, writing scripts, filling out forms, planning a trip to Ukraine, going to the school, freaking out, rewriting things, getting feedback, and so much more. Like seriously: it was a lot.
There were lots of wild stories along the way, but one of the craziest ones happened when we sent our event plan out for feedback.
One of the sessions we’d designed was about goal setting and vision boarding, where the kids set goals for what they want out of their life and where they want to be in 25 years, then vision board their dreams. The feedback we received from Migration Aid was that we should make this vision board more short-term–that the kids won’t be able to picture themselves in 25 years.
But that’s exactly the point of what we’re trying to do. We want to show these kids–whose lives have been disrupted and feel hopeless–that they can have hope for their future. That their education will not be a barrier for them. That they can become who they want to be.
The work we were doing was changing the kids’ whole narrative about themselves and their lives. We didn’t change the session.
Time flew by, and before we knew it, we were only a week out from the event–and it was time to visit Ukraine. We traveled to a small shelter about thirty minutes from the Hungary-Ukraine border to meet the refugee families staying there and talk to them about their experiences and ask how our program might help.
I wanted to cry the entire time.
A small family showed us around the shelter as they told us their story: their older child, Anastasia, was paralyzed and couldn’t walk for years–until they came to this shelter that had better medical care. She now wants to be a superhero when she grows up, and she also wants to have a pet cat. Their younger child, just a few months old, was born in the shelter. And the entire time, they were thanking us for caring enough to visit them.
It really put things into perspective, and I’ve been deeply inspired by Anastasia ever since.
Visiting Ukraine made the three of us more driven than ever to kickstart our program and help these kids.
The day before the event, we visited our venue–the Balna–to help set everything up. Of course, there were a few problems: there were nowhere near enough magazines or craft supplies for the vision boarding session, the translators said we needed to change a whole session to be less complicated, and we had to edit a few of our slides and add translations.
And we still hadn’t memorized our introductory speech, not even the part where we speak Ukrainian.
Needless to say, we had a really late night.
The Education Jumpstart Event: Day 1
Getting to the Balna–seeing it all set up with “Education Jumpstart Event” signs and booths and hundreds of chairs and a stage–was like nothing I’d ever experienced. We had actually done something. We did that–put together this event.
But that had nothing on the feeling when we saw 500 kids take their seats and wait for us to come on stage. We were helping actual kids who were actually real people and who were actually here.
No longer was it “we’re helping kids”, it was that “we are helping these kids”. They had faces and names. When we got up to give our introductory program, we were smiling and jumping around the stage and bringing the energy. It was fun and basically perfect. (We didn’t mess up.)
The Education Jumpstart Event: Day 2
This next day went much like the first.
Throughout the entire event, parents would come up to me with Google Translate open, Ukrainian to English, with paragraphs of appreciation–of how this event would change their child’s life. There was an undertone of sadness for me during the event, as refugee program directors would point out a group of triplets who had lost both of their parents to the war, while exclaiming that it was lovely to see them smile as they opened their computer. That room was full of loss and tragedy, but these kids were ready for some hope. And it was my honor to give some to them.
By the end of day two, every single one of those kids signed up for our long-term program. It was an absolutely unbelievable feeling. Click here if you want to see our website. (click “English” at the top of the page if you want to read the content).
We’re currently working on making more of these videos and stories available, so stay tuned.
What you should take away from this story
There is one big thing you should take away from this story: kids are capable of so much.
We had to convince these kids that they could take back control of their lives and achieve their dreams, and my sister, H, and I were able to plan a 500-kid event and shoot a documentary and lead a class every day–all in three weeks.
My parents were called irresponsible for letting us go to Ukraine and Budapest and plan this thing on our own. Really, they were supporting. Empowering.
It doesn’t matter how old your kid is: they are capable of impacting the world.
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.
Incredible ❤️