![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2023\/03\/Ukraine2-2-300x200-1.jpg\")
When the teachers contacted her, Haigh offered to help and connected them with Oksana Ivanyuk, a friend living in Ukraine. Ivanyuk is a film producer for Polygon Film Production Company.<\/p>\n
Last month, four of the third graders \u2013 Ansel, Dawson, Aanya and Anton \u2013 joined Haigh, Ivanyuk and Hurley for a Zoom session to talk about what is happening.<\/p>\n
The students had sent their questions in advance so they could talk about the issues at an age-appropriate level.<\/p>\n
First up, of course, was why are the Ukrainians fighting. Ansel asked: \u201cWhy don\u2019t the soldiers just run away because there is a high probability they will be killed?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivanyuk explained with an example reflecting the Ukrainian perspective: Imagine if your neighbor says, can I use your balcony? It\u2019s a nice place to relax. My balcony is called Crimea. The next day the neighbor comes into your kitchen and says, I now consider this place to be mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would be your reaction?\u201d Ivanyuk asked. \u201cI believe you will defend your home, your country, from this aggressive neighbor. That is what our soldiers do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions about why<\/h3>\n
So, why are the Russian soldiers fighting, Anton asked.<\/p>\n
Russians have a big propaganda machine, Ivanyuk answered. \u201cThey are telling people we had this huge empire, our country was big and strong.\u201d Now they want that empire back, she added.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that what Hitler told the Germans before World War II, Anton asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right. That\u2019s exactly right,\u201d Ivanyuk replied. \u201cYou are an extremely bright and talented young man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking from the war zone<\/h3>\n
The Zoom call illustrated the reality of the conflict. Ivanyuk joined from her apartment in Ukraine, partially darkened because of intermittent planned power losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of videos taken on my cell phone\u2026explosions filmed out of my window in the center of Kiev. In Eastern Ukraine, there are just villages that are wiped to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the third graders\u2019 questions were about the children in Ukraine and how they were doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cTry to imagine that you go to Finland or Japan with your mother for a year,\u201d Ivanyuk said. \u201cYour father stays at home and goes to war. You don\u2019t know when you will see him again. You need to learn a new language and find new friends. Your mother has to learn how to live in a new environment, and you father will need to learn to live without you.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the children are learning from their experiences, Ivanyuk added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they come back, they will have friends all over the world,\u201d she said. \u201cThey will tell their friends \u2018I met wonderful people in America. I have friends from Germany.\u2019 Then the world will become a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
How to help<\/h3>\n
The third graders wanted to know what they could do to help. Haigh and Ivanyuk suggested hanging up a Ukrainian flag or writing letters to children, families and soldiers. The students at Haigh\u2019s children\u2019s school in Milwaukee are doing that, she said. Many Ukrainians read English, and language apps like Duolingo make it easy to pop in a Ukrainian phrase or two.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will give them so much energy and just warm their hearts,\u201d Haigh told the children.<\/p>\n
She doesn\u2019t mind taking the time to share information with these young students, Haigh added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war is on its second year now, and understandably everyone is tired of hearing the same news, heartbreak at the innocent people dying and Russian soldiers\u2019 atrocities. Many people are starting to forget that the war is still going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it becomes particularly important to engage the next generation of American children,\u201d Haigh said. \u201cSo that they continue growing up with strong sense of empathy and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An internet search for experts on the war led teachers in California to Maria Haigh at 51ÁÔÆæ, who is from Ukraine. She and a friend who remains in the war zone talked with the students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":119514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,126],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[347,165],"class_list":["post-119512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-campus-news","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-information-studies"],"yoast_head":"\n