Teaching history with Den’s photos

Last fall, Den/The Day has already reported about the Mykhailo Stelmakh Middle School (levels I-III) in the village of Litky, Kyiv oblast. Here, pupils read Den at school breaks and our materials are used as a reference on history lessons. Now, the photos of the 16th Den’s Photo Exhibit in 2014 compose the bulk of the traveling “Gallery of National Memory,” which will be brought to schools. The idea was implemented with the support of international charity foundations: Ukrainian Youth Association and the National Endowment for Democracy.

The project was initiated by Lidia Fisunova, a teacher who was forced to move to Kyiv region from Donetsk oblast. Already living in Litky, she visited the class of Yaroslav Satskiv, history teacher, as he was giving a tour of the school ethnographic and local history museum. There were showpieces from different periods spanning from the Stone Age to the Orange Revolution. “I was impressed with the museum. But there was nothing about Maidan and ATO – the teacher explained that the particular reason for this was the lack of funding. And I promised to find the money to set up this section of the display,” reminisces Fisunova.

Before that the teachers from Litky visited the Den’s Photo Exhibit at Lavra Gallery in Kyiv. “It gave us a huge energy uplift! We decided to follow this model in creating our project. Thus we designed the traveling exhibition in order to have pupils in different schools honor the events of Maidan and the soldiers in the East,” says Satskiv. Nearly 20 photos that took part at the 16th Den’s Photo Exhibit in 2014 are also on display here.

The project has already been invited to Chernihiv oblast. “We will display our ‘Gallery of National Memory’ in schools and, possibly, in culture clubs following the endorsement of village mayors,” says Hanna Samoilenko-Hrazhdan, principal of the Litky Mykhailo Stelmakh Middle School. “It is Den we have to thank for having become more contemporary. Your newspaper made us realize that even in a small village we are able to do something for Ukraine.”