Open letter

Dear colleagues of Steiner Waldorf schools in Europe,

Since 24 February 2022, we have been stunned by Russia‘s war of aggression against large parts of Ukraine and have witnessed the destruction of the homeland of many people. Many Waldorf schools have already taken in mothers and children or young people travelling alone and are integrating them as best they can into the everyday life of the Waldorf schools. About a quarter of the population of Ukraine is fleeing, with the greater part still on the territory of Ukraine, especially in western Ukraine. Many people from the local community of the Ukrainian Waldorf schools have fled to neighbouring countries and received protection and support from colleagues in the Republic of Moldova, in Romania, in Poland, in Hungary, in the Slovak Republic and in the Czech Republic. Those who wanted to come to Germany were taken in here.

The schools in Ukraine are not closed. They have been converted to online classes, which, by the way, are also offered to children and young people who are outside Ukraine. In Ukraine there are both state Waldorf schools and independent Waldorf schools. The independent schools have not received any parental payments since March; the state schools receive different amounts of state payments depending on where they are. We have the figures from most of the institutions; from some they are still pending. Therefore, the teachers and other staff either no longer receive a salary or only a partial salary. This also applies to the staff of the curative education facilities in Kiev and Kharkov.

Thanks to the donations received by the Friends of Waldorf Education, we were able to compensate for the loss of salaries for March and April. For this purpose we transferred 85,000 € per month for March and April to the schools and kindergartens so that the staff of the schools and curative education institutions can finance their lives in Ukraine.
If, as we assume here, the colleagues are not yet able to live in normal circumstances in May or June or in July, we will need further collegial support. Therefore, we would like to turn to the teachers of the European Waldorf schools and ask you whether you can help us with a donation to support the colleagues of the Waldorf schools who have remained in Ukraine with salary payments in the following months. Of course we also invite the Waldorf schools and Waldorf kindergartens to participate in this support action.

Nana Goebel and Henning Kullak-Ublick (For the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board of Friends of Waldorf Education)
Olena Mezentseva (For the Board of Directors of the Association of the Waldorf Schools in Ukraine)