The academic community of Ukraine is currently facing unprecedented humanitarian and infrastructural challenges. Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), which has fostered close relations with the country, has launched a support campaign, inviting the public and the academic community to donate urgently needed items for Ukrainian universities.
“Our students and staff are confronting relentless disruptions: their daily lives, education, and research have been continuously affected by barbaric attacks on civilians and critical energy infrastructure in extreme winter conditions, leaving people without heating and electricity in freezing temperatures and severely threatening the safety and wellbeing of the entire academic community”, Volodymyr Bugrov, the Rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, writes in his letter to colleagues and partners.
In Ukraine’s universities, teaching continues amidst blackouts, examinations take place between air-raid alerts, research adapts to interrupted access to laboratories and digital resources, and students and staff manage displacement, volunteering, and caring for their families.
According to VMU Rector Prof. Dr. Ineta Dabašinskienė, as the full-scale war is approaching its fifth year, the Ukrainian academic community is demonstrating exceptional strength in the face of constant threat to their lives. But now, more than ever, it needs help and unity from all of Europe.
“We cannot stand by as we see the enormous burden shouldered by Ukrainians, who hold the future of democracy in their hands. Their bravery, resilience, and endurance are a powerful example and lesson for the whole European continent. I invite everyone to contribute to the support and express solidarity in tangible ways. At Vytautas Magnus University, we have been supporting Ukraine for many years. Today we have another opportunity to show that the academic community can bring light even in the darkest times”, VMU Rector said, urging everyone to support Ukraine’s universities.
The support campaign invites everyone to contribute by donating inexpensive but currently much-needed items to Ukraine’s universities: USB heaters, universal heaters, electric hand warmers, heating pads, USB-powered LED desk lamps with clips, ring LED lights, tripods for ring lights, and high-capacity power banks. All items must be new and rechargeable via USB.
The donated items will be delivered to Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, Dnipro University of Technology, Sumy State University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and Mariupol State University.
Vytautas Magnus University invites the Lithuanian public and academic community to contribute to the donation campaign. Items can be delivered on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to the VMU Mariupol State University Center (S. Daukanto g. 28, Room 109, Kaunas) and the VMU Ukraine Center (T. Ševčenko St. 31, Vilnius). The campaign will run until February 17 (inclusive).
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