Trusting Our Children’s Hearts: Transylvania College’s Student Response to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis

Ioana Safirescu, Young Journey Coordinator, Global Awareness, Transylvania College (Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
August 1, 2022
Trusting Our Children’s Hearts: Transylvania College’s Student Response to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis

Global Humanity Day, celebrated this year on the 24th of March, started with a few students who wanted to bring a positive change to the lives of Ukrainians affected by the war. In less than 2 weeks, 25-30 students from Transylvania College in Cluj-Napoca, Romania came up with the concept and plans.

 

Soon after the war started, Ukrainian refugees began arriving to our city, and the students struggled with difficult questions that they asked in classes and during our school-wide assemblies: “What is in our power to do to help them? How can we make a change in their lives?” Not only did the students want to make a real change, but they also wanted to raise awareness regarding the conflict that was going on in our neighboring country. Without our prompting as educators, the students recognised the immediate, human crisis and decided they needed to do something.

 

For weeks, the students met during every lunch break to brainstorm what they could do, and the meetings were open to all high school students interested in being involved. Our Executive Director, Miss Ruxandra Mercea, was always present and guiding them, but the ideas and decisions were entirely the students’. Humanity Day was organised on the 24th of March, the date that marked one month since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian forces. 

 

The students identified that it was important to educate themselves about the crisis and to provide an opportunity for their peers within their school and within their global community to take action. They developed www.humanity-day.com to spread awareness and to provide schools with a way to develop and share their own initiatives. They planned a full day of activities and lessons on our campus to engage the school in learning around the crisis. And they reached out to schools around the world to join in the cause: they hope that Humanity Day is not to be remembered just one day per year and could become a larger movement for the betterment of our global community.

On March 24th, students were allowed to not wear their uniform and to instead wear the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and the faculty were invited to join as well. The students organised and presented student-led lessons on the topic of humanity around the world. To support these student initiatives, the school leaders organised a Phonathon for the parents of our students in order to raise money. Through a combination of the Phonathon and donations coordinated by the students, we have managed to raise 26.000 euros, with more donations continuing to come through their Humanity Day website

 

The students had been researching NGOs involved in the Ukraine crisis, and they knew that material goods in support of the refugees were being supplied by many large organisations. So they decided to offer a solution that would directly support the refugees they were seeing in their own communities: a Romanian language immersion course. This course is intended for the refugees who are residing in Romania for an undefined period or until the war is over and they can go back. What is being wanted here is to help them integrate easier into their new communities to make things just a bit easier for them. This course is structured depending on age, ranging from Kindergarten children to their parents/families. 

 

While this project was the initiative of our high school students, we, as adults, tried to guide them and to help them with things that they couldn’t do on their own like finding sponsors, dealing with bureaucracy, and doing fundraising. Soon after the conflict began, there was a significant response in Romania at all levels: the NGOs in our country started fundraising, the Romanian citizens were donating individually, and there were many volunteers waiting at the border with different goods and/or money. All in all, trying to fundraise was a bit more complicated than we all imagined. We needed to support the students as they tried to use the little time they had to support their neighbors and new community members, sometimes even allowing them to miss classes in support of this significant initiative. 

 

Having the students come up with an idea, contour it, make plans, and execute decisions on their own has had a significant impact on them: they have become more responsible and mature in a short amount of time. The tragedy taking place nearby affected them emotionally, triggering them to be the change they want to see and want to live. They wanted to do the things that we typically wait for others to do on our behalf because they were able to put themselves into the shoes of the Ukrainian people. They felt urgency through empathy.

 

While there was a main group of students leading the effort, other students had the opportunity to provide their skills to support the effort through social media, finances, fundraising, website development, giving speeches, conducting interviews, and so on. Each group had to learn to be very well organised, fully committed to the project, and good communicators (especially given age differences and the fact that many of them didn’t previously know each other). 

 

What we, the adults, were impressed by most, was the ability of the newly formed groups to work so well together. Having the same dream, wanting to do good, and working together in order to make someone they didn’t even know feel better is what brought everyone together. These amazing teenagers taught us, the adults, a few important lessons.

 

And now the students are asking themselves “Why should Humanity Day be limited to only one day?” It is true, the 24th of March marked one month from the beginning of the war, but we should celebrate Humanity Day DAILY. As a result, it was settled that each of the schools enrolled for Humanity Day through our website should celebrate whenever they want, however many times they feel like. The students want Humanity Day to become a movement, and the website can provide a way to track and share the various ways that schools in our networks can take action in support of worldwide humanity at any time. We at Transylvania College plan to share these initiatives within our communities periodically and to continue to celebrate Humanity Day on the 24th of March each year. 

 

As an adult, I have clearly seen the power of stepping back and giving the students the opportunity to let their hearts guide their actions and the way they see themselves in the world. Their hearts are more open, and their minds are not altered by the “real world,” making their solutions so much better than we would have thought of (at least in our case). We can support and guide them, but they have the power; Let’s trust our children’s hearts more.