UNICEF to help Ukraine equip heating points

MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is ready to support a project for the equipment of heating points at Ukrainian schools and kindergartens during winter, UNICEF Representative in Ukraine Murat Sahin said.

Deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Kirill Timoshenko briefed Sahin on the Ukrainian government's plan to open heating points during winter, where people could come if their homes had no heating or power supply, the Ukrainian media said, quoting the presidential press service.

Timoshenko said that the heating points would be equipped with generators, drinking water, food, and Internet connection. Ukraine needs about 17,000 generators to do that.

"We want to open these heating points at schools and kindergartens in big cities and at administrative buildings in the countryside," Timoshenko said, adding that Ukraine would welcome assistance of international organizations to the project.

Sahin underlined the importance of the idea and reaffirmed the readiness of the UNICEF to support the heating point project within the framework of the Learning Together Initiative.

He also said that the initiative launched by the Education and Science Ministry together with the UNICEF and Ukraine's First Lady Yelena Zelenskaya to support the teaching process during this school year would provide a thousand schools with $3 million for their needs.