Abstract:

After the Russia attacked Ukraine at the beginning of the year 2022, millions of war refugees from Ukraine were leaving their houses and moving to the neighbouring countries. Lithuania as one of the most active accepting countries sheltered thousands of Ukrainian families with school-aged children. These families were provided with shelter, financial, social, and psychological support, also children were provided by school and preschool education at local educational institutions. However, considering challenging experiences at their home country these children had to face new ones – new school at the new receiving country. The first month was most challenging. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the essence and specificity of Ukrainian children refugees’ experiences during the first month in Lithuanian schools. The data was collected and analysed following van Manen‘s (2014) practical phenomenology approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 school aged children (with their parents participating). When collecting data, the focus was on specific descriptions of children's momentary experiences, based on which anecdotes were created. Research findings revealed that Lithuanian and Ukrainian people's relationship is very deep, as a result acceptance of new school-aged children at school was easy; they quickly became "themselves", part of the community. However, still for quicker integration involvement of all members of the school community and support for refugee children is needed and the educational system needs more "skills" to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugee children.

Keywords:

Ukrainian children, refugees, war, phenomenology.