Editor’s Note: International Youth Day is on June 28. This is a letter to the class of 2020 about all the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dear class of 2020,
Congratulations on your graduation! You did it! You’re ready to continue your journey through life, making your marks on your communities and bringing positive changes to the world!
This school year ended for you with the last bell ringing online. It was definitely not the graduation you expected and dreamed about for years.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant that you, like many other children and young people in Ukraine and around the globe, had to study remotely for the last couple of months. For many of you, it was a struggle.
Even though the government launched television and online lessons, continuing education during quarantine has remained challenging. Those of you living in remote and frontline communities in eastern Ukraine have been left with no real opportunities to continue your education. We received reports that some children might lack access to the internet, television, or computers at home.
Meanwhile, school closure has threatened the well-being of many family members. It might also lead to poor health, mental, and physical. It has also put some of you at heightened risk of exploitation, violence, and abuse.
The COVID-19 crisis must not disrupt your learning. Your education determines what your world looks like tomorrow and what your future ultimately looks like. That’s why it is important to ensure that children and youth have equal opportunities to keep learning even during difficult times of pandemic.
And school closure is not the only thing that has affected you. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost every sphere of your lives.
The outbreak has put additional pressure on the health care system, disrupting critical health services like vaccination for non-COVID diseases. We are all waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine. At the same time, the immunization program has reportedly been interrupted in many regions of Ukraine, increasing the risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles, polio, and diphtheria.
The pandemic and the situation of uncertainty that we live in is challenging our resilience. One-third of calls to a national hotline for children relate to mental health and psychosocial well-being. More work is needed to provide you with proper support and treatment.
Quarantine measures have also jeopardized access to basics like water. The situation is particularly disturbing in eastern Ukraine. This creates the risk of disease outbreaks, especially in communities relying on water trucking and public wells.
Moreover, the pandemic might have an economic impact on you and your families. The consequences of the pandemic could push you further into hardship and put many more of you below the poverty line. Without scaling up social protection measures and temporary universal payments to all families with children, the situation could be devastating.
Those of you in eastern Ukraine are at double risk. The situation has severely deteriorated in recent months, and the ceasefire agreement is being violated every day. The conflict continues to deny you the protection, health, and futures you deserve.
COVID-19 is taking a lot from you; however, it is also giving you strength. This current global crisis shows that the world is one, and by working together, we can make an immense difference.
That’s why we at UNICEF are cooperating with governments and organizations to fight COVID-19 and support families, children and youth during the pandemic.
This is a time of adversity, but we know you can flourish. You have power, ideas, drive, energy, and passion. You know how to use technology to break down distances, keep learning, support one another, and speak out! Be determined to pursue your education and fight for your futures!
It’s incredibly inspiring to see how your generation is helping to overcome the pandemic. We see stories of young engineers in Vinnytsia printing face shields for hospitals at their 3D printers, students in Bakhmut, and Odesa providing food parcels for pensioners, youth groups in Kyiv sending letters of support to residents of elderly homes and many others. Each action, each step, is essential in this battle against COVID-19. You give us hope that together we can change our world for the better.
Keep raising your voices about issues that matter to you, and keep supporting one another! Congratulations today and best wishes for all your tomorrows!
Lotta Sylwander is the UNICEF Representative in Ukraine.
