Sigma Software Launches Ed-Motivational project Star for Life Ukraine

Sigma Software Group launches Star for Life Ukraine, extension of a unique Swedish ed-motivational project with the aim of teaching IT skills and raising self-esteem in schoolchildren living in Ukrainian villages and towns.

• The pilot course on Programming in partner schools was planned for March 2022, but obviously could not be implemented. In May, the team Star for Life started to receive requests from state educational organizations. Based on those requests and considering the changed conditions, they began making a new version of Star for Life project using the existing developments – IT skills as an educational component and working through the war trauma as a psychological component.
• They decided to start with two initiatives.

1. The first one, which is already up and running, is an IT Summer Camp intended to teach Java skills to children in a healthy and calm location. In July, Sigma Software together with IDF, with the financial support of Voices of Children, initiated the first IT summer camp in the framework of Star for Life Ukraine activities.
2. The second initiative marks the full-scale deployment of Star for Life Ukraine programs. A Start for Life Lab opens in Truskavets, a small town in the west of Ukraine that accommodates many temporarily relocated children. The Lab is intended to provide opportunities for out-of-school education for children and adolescents in the places of residence of internally displaced persons. The first group of 24 kids gathered in a country hotel in Ivano-Frankivsk Region. The group also joined three computer science teachers who were forced to relocate from Mariupol and Nova Kakhovka. Another group is planned for August.

In cooperation with local authorities, we strive to create a computer class where kids can get IT skills, find friends, continue distance education using the Lab’s equipment. The Lab will form a common space with a Voices of Children’s center that focuses on discussion classes, art sessions, and other activities as a means to release psychological tension. We consider it extremely important to arrange physical centers for children to learn and develop. With online education, displaced families, and shocks of war, we need to ensure a creative space for kids. Star for Life Ukraine is an open project and I hope that other companies and organizations will join our initiatives.- Denis Wolowyk, CEO at Star for Life Ukraine

Click to find out more about the programs of Star for Life Ukraine and ways to support the project.