"The number doesn't answer, but I can hear you". Ukrainian schoolchildren wrote letters to friends in occupation

A student essay contest was held in Ukraine, in which students wrote letters to their peers in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. It was attended by 241 children in grades 8-11 from different cities of Ukraine.

According to the organizers of the initiative, the Almenda Center for Civic Education, the competition was created to help students understand the realities in which more than 1.6 million children live in the TOT. Some of the project participants were themselves under occupation, while others wrote to friends who remained in the TOT, NUS reports.

The first place went to Yelyzaveta Hryzhak, a 9th grade student of Zolotiv Lyceum #5 in Hirska Amalgamated hromada in Luhansk region. She addressed her essay to her friend Mykhailo, who is in the occupied city of Zolote, and called it "After the rain, the rainbow always comes."

"It hurts me when I remember all our plans for the future: small and large, insignificant and important. I get annoyed when I realize that I can't do anything to help. I am angry that I am not where I should be. But I do not lose hope. People say that we choose our own lives. I chose to be happy - to live in Ukraine!" wrote Yelyzaveta.

"Life sends us trials, which we pass with dignity. I promise that we will meet and give each other smiles that will testify to the end of the horror called the terrible word 'war'. I believe that the beginning of a new life will follow. Everything will be Ukraine! See you, Mykhailo," the schoolgirl's essay reads.

Karina Gryzliuk, who is a 9th grader at the Lyceum of Natural Sciences of the Kropyvnytskyi City Council, took second place in the competition. She wrote to her friend Arina, who was under occupation in Rubizhne, Luhansk region. Later, the girl managed to leave.

"My dear Arina! It's been almost two months since I've heard from you. I know it's hard in Rubizhne, but you promised me... to stay alive. You wrote that you would come, that you would get out of there, and we would go for a walk around the city. And I will finally see that adorable cat who loves to bite you so much while you write me letters back... My mom calls you "the crane with broken wings" and keeps asking how you are and if you are still there. How can I explain to her that the missiles fell near your house, and I noticed in the photos on the news that the windows on your floor are gone? I want to believe that you will be fine," she wrote.

The third place was shared by tenth-graders Sofia Bazai from Lozova Lyceum No. 1 in Kharkiv region and Yevhen Gogin from Kherson Physics and Technology Lyceum.

Sofia wrote an essay titled "The number doesn't answer, but I can hear you", which she addressed to her friend from Mariupol.

"My dear Ukrainian friend, I know that you are in a very difficult situation right now, and I want to express my support and share my thoughts. Every day the war makes itself felt, and I think of you and all the children of Ukraine who find themselves in this situation. You are child heroes, child knights, child warriors! I would like to give you something. Or rather, to make a spiritual exchange! You will give me FEAR. Fear for yourself and your loved ones, for your life and health, fear of not learning something new. I will give you LIGHT! Hope for the future. Light in your soul to resist the enemy, to believe in victory, to drive away fear step by step!" Sofia's essay reads.

Yevhen, who was under occupation in Kherson, titled his letter "I hear" and addressed it to himself in the past: "I heard the footsteps of patrols on the streets, I heard the rumble of equipment at night, I heard fear in the voices of my neighbors. But you know what I heard the loudest? I heard support. I heard people from a free Ukraine sending us hope through radio waves, through messages, through songs. I heard their faith in us, and it gave me strength to hold on."

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, the online community criticized the appearance of Stefania's lyrics in a 7th grade Ukrainian literature textbook. The dubbing director and editor Oleksa Negrebetsky pointed out the filigree lines, sarcastically calling the expression "shlak trafiv" highly artistic.

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