On October 1-4, 2018, we organized the All-Ukrainian Lesson of Kindness with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science and the “UAnimals” Humanist Movement. The topic of the lesson was "Humane and responsible attitude towards animals" based on a methodological guide developed by the Fund.
As a result, on October 4, the National Record of Ukraine was established as "The Largest Number of Lessons of Kindness". The specialists registered 6 542 lessons at 791 educational institutions.
Educational institutions from all (!) regions of Ukraine have joined the lessons.
In general, educational institutions from 854 human settlements of Ukraine were involved in All-Ukrainian Lesson of Kindness:
· 195 cities
· 80 urban-type settlements
· 579 villages
According to our information, 1 580 educational institutions joined the lessons.
In total, our organization gave 12 504 lessons during this period.
The largest number of lessons were held in:
- Dnipropetrovsk oblast – 1 280 lessons;
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Khmelnytsky oblast – 1 083 lessons;
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Kyiv oblast - 922 lessons;
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Poltava oblast - 908 lessons;
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Chernihiv oblast - 876 lessons.
The largest number of lessons were held (in cities):
Dnipro - 700 lessons;
Kyiv - 592 lessons;
Kharkiv - 288 lessons;
Cherkasy - 223 lessons;
Mykolaiv - 206 lessons.
At the press conference held on October 11, representatives of the National Register of Records of Ukraine presented the Certificate of the Record Registration. You can watch the video from the press conference here:
The founder of the Happy Paw Charity Fund, Olha Spektor, commented on the results of the nationwide lesson: "I just want to thank all those who supported us all this time. It was a long way of 5 years. It all began with one lesson at one school, when we persuaded the director to let us enter into the classroom and tell pupils that animals can and should be treated responsibly and humanely. My parents are teachers and I know for sure that teachers are extremely important in our life, they start with all the changes that later can break the deadlocks in the society. That was the way we have chosen 5 years ago. And I'm sure that issues such as humane attitude towards animals and the reduction of number of homeless animals in a humane way are absolutely possible if the society starts to change, and it can only change if it grows differently. Therefore, it is necessary to find the place where the society is growing. This place is clearly a school".
"I want to say that the National Register of Records immediately supported this idea, since the attitude towards animals is a mirror of the society. I am going to tell the well-known truth: how people treat elderly people, children and animals determines the level of civilization in the society. If we analyze aspects of the attitude towards animals, we see that now we have a Stone Age. That is the reason why the National Register of Records of Ukraine supported the idea of the All-Ukrainian Lesson of Kindness. We are heartened by the result. Moreover we are ready to continue our partnership to support such initiatives", said Lana Vetrova, head of the National Register of Records of Ukraine.
The initiator of “UAnimals” Humanist Movement, Oleksandr Todorchuk, commented on the event: "UAnimals” Movement struggles for animal rights and with cruelty towards animals in different ways, but everything starts directly from school. You can find a wide range of information about everything on the Internet now, but, unfortunately, it is impossible to google humanity. I have never seen before any posts on Facebook from the Lyceum where I studied, and then such news showed up in my Facebook feed one by one: "1-A conducted a Lesson of Kindness ...", "5-B joined to the All-Ukrainian Lesson of Kindness ...” I was very excited about that, it was a personal moment and special feelings. And I feel rather proud about that because I am a part of it. Secondly, when we saw the geographical spread of such activities, we understood how many small towns and villages have joined independently. This points that Happy Paw has launched a great process, and we need to keep moving".
The lessons of kindness were carried out on the basis of the methodological guide of the Happy Paw Charity Fund - "Humane and Responsible Attitude towards Animals", which is recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science for use in educational institutions. The guide is based on the own work of the Happy Paw Charity Fund within the framework of the Bioethics project, which is being implemented by the fund for more than 5 years. During this time, more than 600,000 children throughout Ukraine attended lessons about humane and responsible attitude towards animals, and joined volunteering.
The reviewer of the guide is Bykovska Olena Volodymyrivna, the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Extracurricular Education Department of the NPU named after M.P. Dragomanov, Rector of the Institute of Ecology, Economy and Law. "The education of children is our investment in future," said Ms. Olena. She presented a small description of methodological guide: "We all know that values play a major role in today's education. Values through the development of attitudes. Therefore, the problems of upbringing a humane and responsible attitude towards animals are very relevant now. The very fact that the title of the guide is "Humane and Responsible Attitude towards Animals", demonstrates once again its relevance. It is also valuable that this guide is intended for children of different school age. "
One of the first who supported and announced the campaign was the Osvitoria Public Organization. The founder and head of the association, Zoya Lytvyn, told about cooperation with the Fund, and focused on her impressions of the methodological guide: "If we do not talk about such important topics with children, they can hear some information from friends or see somewhere in the social networks and make their own conclusions. However, in order to talk with children properly about a humane and responsible attitude towards animals, it is important that teachers understand this topic and be methodically equipped. Therefore, I am very pleased that such a guide has appeared."
We are incredibly grateful to all those involved in this event, students, teachers, our partners and participants of the press conference for joint success.