Rehabilitation and Opening of the Pinocchio Kindergarten in Borodianka, Kyiv region | Project HOPE

"You have given life back to our children by rebuilding our kindergarten" - Iryna Zakharchenko, acting head of the Borodianka village council.
On January 31, 2024, the team of Project HOPE in Ukraine celebrated the second birthday of the Borodianka kindergarten "Pinocchio", which suffered during the occupation of Kyiv region in March 2022.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Project HOPE team led by Regional Director Giorgio Trombatore, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) team, representatives of the Borodyanka community led by Iryna Zakharchenko, the Ambassador of Lithuania to Ukraine, representatives of Global Emergency Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction in Ukraine, and a representative of the Presidential Administration Volodymyr Hoy.
Project HOPE has been actively helping the Borodianka community since the first days of the liberation. Giorgio Trombatore emphasized: "When we arrived here a year and a half ago and saw a completely destroyed town, we met with representatives of the local community in a nearby building, which was one of the only ones left in a more or less usable condition. During that time, we established a really strong bond with the Borodianka community, as this is not our first project here.
One of the requests was to restore the kindergarten so that children would have a safe and comfortable place to grow. In May 2023, the Project HOPE team launched a project to restore the Borodyanka kindergarten, which was severely damaged during airstrikes on the village in February-March 2022.
Project coordinator Yulia Rudnichenko recalled: "At the beginning of the project we did not know whether we would be able to restore the kindergarten building due to the significant damage it had suffered. After consulting with many experts and specialists, we determined whether the building would be safe for children and began reconstruction work in early May 2023".
The reconstruction process took seven months. During this time, 1200 square meters of space were renovated. The team replaced the roof, repaired the façade, installed doors and windows, completely replaced the plumbing, completed all the decorative work, and laid the sidewalks.
Another significant part of the process was changing the name of the kindergarten from Buratino, which was the character's name from russian book, to Pinocchio. A mural was also painted on one of the walls, symbolizing the connection between the past and the bright future the team wanted to give the children and the community.
The director of the kindergarten, Iryna Nosova, welcomed the guests: "Our beautiful Pinocchio kindergarten is celebrating its second birthday today and is hospitably opening its doors after the reconstruction. I am sincerely grateful to everyone involved for taking care of our children.

[@ukrkmp]

Very impressive! Great job, the Project HOPE Ukraine team!

[@UPU2408]

So wonderful to see the rebuilding of Ukraine 💙💛 thank you for your tireless work 💙💛

[@darynagorska655]

Grazie 💙💛

[@user-vn3uc8zn4j]

Awsome 👍👍👍👍👍 Job, Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🇺🇦🤙💙💛🙏🙏🙏

[@marionhutton8141]

So nice to see happy children instead of all the sorrow 😢 well done to all

[@jonnywishbone1342]

This channel needs more views and comments, help send a message that it is not all doom and gloom....promote the positive aspects of resilience and recovery 🇺🇦