Second Module of “Koreni ta Kryla” (Roots and Wings) Mentoring Program Concludes in Lviv

The three days of work in Lviv brought together discussions on historical memory, human rights and freedoms, totalitarian regimes, Ukraine’s liberation and human rights movements, the memory of the Maidan and the Heavenly Hundred, fallen Ukrainian soldiers, and the responsibility of preserving human stories.

A Conversation about the “Nezghasni” Online Memorial

The final meeting of the second module began at the Roman Ivanychuk Lviv Regional Library for Youth with a conversation with Natalia Kuba — Global L&D Operations and Excellence Director at SoftServe, a lecturer at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Lviv Polytechnic, and a civic activist.

The conversation focused on working with the memory of fallen Ukrainian soldiers and honoring them, using the “Nezghasni” online memorial as an example. Natalia Kuba spoke about how the project idea emerged, the team’s work on the digital platform, and the search for answers to a difficult question: how to preserve the memory of the fallen not only through names, dates, and facts, but through the stories of their lives, values, and choices.

From Grief to Heroization

An important part of the project’s work was researching the needs of different audiences. The team spoke with military personnel, veterans, families of the fallen, educators, and representatives of civic organizations and local government. One of the key ideas formulated by military personnel during the project was the shift “from grief to heroization.”

“This should not be some kind of template. It should be the story of a person that can be told to others,” Natalia Kuba emphasized. The point was the need to see, behind the figure of a hero, first and foremost a living person — their life path, beliefs, motives, and values that shaped their choices.

A separate topic of the conversation was the extreme sensitivity of working with memory and the need for dialogue with the families of the fallen. Natalia Kuba emphasized that there are no universal solutions in this work; instead, empathy, respect, and a willingness to listen become especially important.

“We can simply be kind, listen attentively, and support through our presence,” she said.

Participants also discussed the practical aspects of creating the online memorial: verifying and preserving information, locating burial sites, the ability to add memories and photographs, working with different audiences, and the platform’s potential use in educational work.

The creation of “Nezghasni” is based on the design thinking method, which involves not moving from a predetermined solution but exploring people’s real needs.

This idea became an important starting point for further discussion with program participants: the best solutions emerge when people arrive not with ready-made answers, but with a willingness to carefully explore the problem, listen to others, and search for solutions together.

Practical Workshop: “The Struggle for Rights”

The final day continued with a practical workshop, “The Struggle for Rights,” led by Natalia Omelchuk, educational programs coordinator at the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation.

Participants worked with the theme of the human rights movement in Ukraine and the stories of people who dared to stand up to the system and defend human dignity, rights, and freedoms. “This is a conversation about finding ways, about justice, about people who decide to go against the system, to seek justice, to seek protection of their rights and freedoms,” Natalia Omelchuk emphasized.

During the practical session, teachers formed teams, worked with materials on figures of the human rights movement, researched their stories, and presented the results of their collaborative work.

An important part of the session was a discussion of how to work with such topics at school and encourage students not only to memorize historical facts but to analyze human actions, motives, and decisions. Direct conversations with scholars and researchers are especially valuable for teachers, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of complex chapters of history, become familiar with contemporary scholarly approaches, and carry this knowledge and experience into their work with students.

Reflection Circle and Module Summary

The second module concluded with a shared reflection circle. Participants spoke about the three days of work in Lviv, meetings with speakers, the spaces they visited, the experience gained, and the practical tools they plan to use in their work starting from the new school year.

Teachers saw the program’s special value in the opportunity not only to gain new knowledge but also to immediately understand how to apply it in their work with students. “Last time I was only thinking about how to remember all of this, but now I’m taking away five ready-made assignments, with an understanding of how I will implement them, and a vision for lessons with complex cases and discussion ideas. I’m leaving with an entire civic education unit that I will use starting in September,” one program participant said.

In the final circle, teachers spoke at length about the people they met over the three days, about the spaces that also became part of the learning experience, about the strength of a professional community, and about the need not to remain alone with difficult questions. “We have this ‘I,’ but we don’t yet have this ‘we.’ And we need to learn to come together,” one participant said during the closing conversation.

What’s Next

This very combination of knowledge, practical work, personal experience, and live dialogue became one of the main outcomes of the second module.

Over the three days, participants did not just talk about the complex chapters of Ukrainian history, historical memory, freedom, human rights, and responsibility. They looked for ways to carry these conversations into school classrooms — to teach students to see the individual behind historical processes, to analyze their choices, to ask questions, to discuss, and to search for answers on their own.

The second module has concluded, but the program’s work continues. Ahead lie new meetings, collaborative work, and the ongoing search for tools that help teachers talk with young people about Ukraine’s history not only as the past, but as an experience that shapes our understanding of freedom, responsibility, and our own choices today.

We previously wrote about the second day of the module.