Kiddo Byte Ukraine
Who We Are and What We Do
I am Gregory (Gosha) Lubashev. Kiddo Byte Ukraine is dedicated to providing computer science education and opportunities to children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
We teach programming to children at multiple transitional housing facilities and orphanages.
We provide laptops and other educational equipment for these facilities as needed.
We hope to equip children whose lives have been disrupted by the conflict with useful skills, while also offering them joyful and engaging activities.
You can reach out to me at gosha@kiddobyte.org.
News 25 Boston
Local teens take long view on Ukraine’s future
“I have parents who are both from Ukraine,” said Lubashev, an Arlington High School junior, “And they still have so many friends and schoolmates who are still back there.”
Kiddo Byte is focusing on Ukrainians who are not exactly still back there, but are displaced. Specifically, the group is working with orphanages in Poland to teach coding to refugee kids.
“These coding classes allow them to be creative in a time where they really don’t have many outlets for their creativity.”
Our Lessons
We are teaching classes at two orphanages, originally located near Odessa, Ukraine, which have relocated to Poland. They just have two tablets and a weak Wi-Fi. We are planning to get them some Chromebooks and a better network.
In September, we launched classes for children in a transitional housing facility evacuated to Lviv. In November, we recruited additional teachers and have started working with children from a Chernivtsi refugee center.
MEL Science Chemistry Kits
Ever since the Soviet times, Ukraine has been on the forefront of science. Ukrainian children are the future of the country, and their education is one of the very top concerns of the families. The war has caused an enormous disruption to learning. Supporting science education is investing in the future of Ukraine.
We have partnered with MEL Science, Earthlings Hub, UNICEF Ukraine, and Ukraine Rescue Fund to provide over 10,000 MEL Science science kits and experiments to children in refugee camps and schools throughput the country.
These are amazingly fun, accessible and educational kits that we have used ourselves at home and are thrilled at an opportunity to introduce them to children in Ukraine.
The 10,000 science kits will be delivered to children in Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Vinnytsia.
After the first 10,000 kits are delivered to Ukraine, we may be able to ship at least 10,000 more to children in other regions, if we can secure the funding!
Please reach out to donate and share!
Chromebooks
Hundreds of children in orphanages and refugee settlements have been displaced by the war and are missing school and other learning opportunities. Worry about their children’s education is one of the very top concerns of the families in refugee settlements — this is one of very few things they can actually control. There are Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking volunteers around the world who are interested to teach the children remotely, but there are very few laptops where the children are.
We have partnered with Earthlings Hub, Ukraine Rescue Fund, and Shield Ukraine to send 100 Chromebooks and 120 headsets to the orphanages and refugee centers to allow the children a chance to learn.
Our Chromebooks have been delivered to children in Lviv, Kryvyi Rih, Chernivtsi, and Vinnytsia!
Our Partners
Kiddo Byte has partnered with numerous organizations, including MIT OGCR, Lincoln Labs, and the Akamai Foundation, who are supporting its general operations.
Our Ukraine program partners include Earthlings Hub and Ukraine Rescue Fund. We are always looking for additional partnership to support our Ukraine program.
How You Can Help
Critical to our efforts are volunteer instructors. There are far more children at these orphanages and for more interested refugees than we can reach with the resources and people we have today. If you are interested in teaching and can speak Ukrainian or Russian, please contact me at gosha@kiddobyte.org!
If you are interested in donating, please visit kiddobyte.org/donate.
If you have any questions or are an organization interested in working with us, please contact me at gosha@kiddobyte.org.
Thank you very much for your support! It really makes a difference.