A step towards restoration and new opportunities: children from forestry warrior families join the “Iron Shift” project!

The “Iron Shift” programme was initiated by JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” with the support of the Howard Buffett Foundation. Its participants are talented teenagers with outstanding achievements in academics, sports, the arts, and creativity, who have lost the opportunity to realise their potential due to russian military aggression. Hundreds of professional training sessions, meetings with celebrity guests, trips to camps, and journeys—this is just a portion of what nearly 5,000 participants have experienced over two years of the programme.

This time, 260 participants of the “Iron Shift” project are being sent to a five‑day camp, which will take place at the Medical Rehabilitation Center for Railway Workers sanatorium in Khmilnyk, Vinnytsia region. They will take part in an educational and sports programme, training sessions, sports activities, masterclasses, and meetings with renowned speakers.

SFE “Forests of Ukraine” has also joined the project. Fifteen of our participants are talented teenagers, aged 14 to 17, forestry warrior families. Many of these children have fathers who are missing in action or were killed in the war. Our goal is to ensure that these youngsters are not overlooked and to provide them with encouragement for further education and personal growth.

“The main goal of the project is to ensure that these children remain in Ukraine. They are the future of this country and will be the ones to rebuild it. We strive to show them that there are many different paths for development here. Our programme works with children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, who are talented and bright. We introduce them to one another and equip them with all the practical tools they need to enter higher education and become professionals in their chosen fields,” says Sofia Koshke, Project Manager of “Iron Shift.”

The children spent their introductory day in Kyiv, visiting several of the capital’s most interesting sights, after which they departed for the camp.