WeAreUkraine: Youth United, Heritage Alive
Summary
In 2024, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, in partnership with Co-Educational Era (EdEra) , committed $668,500 to preserve Ukrainian identity and combat misinformation amidst the Ukrainian-Russian conflict by launching a cultural preservation application (app) . This app will help maintain ties with the diaspora community and empower displaced youth to stay connected with their Ukrainian heritage. This high-quality educational app will equip Ukrainians with accurate historical narratives and foster a strong sense of belonging, pride, and hope for returning to Ukraine. With many facing uncertain futures, fostering a cultural and psychological link to Ukraine is crucial for encouraging return and rebuilding. This app introduces the first edutainment product tailored for children affected by the war and diasporas, promoting language and cultural retention. Through innovative approaches, it seeks to strengthen the bonds between Ukrainians worldwide and preserve their rich cultural heritage.
Approach
This commitment will create an educational application for children in Ukraine and abroad to help preserve and promote Ukrainian culture. The app will be an interactive map of Ukraine, where players travel by train, pass educational quizzes, watch videos, take tests, and move from station to station. Each station offers quizzes, tasks, and other educational elements. The train symbolizes Ukraine for children, parents, and teachers. Content will focus on the Ukrainian language, history, and culture. The app will offer three game modes: solo journey, online quiz mode, and local game mode.
EdTech studio Co-Educational Era (EdEra) will lead development and implementation, with guidance from the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) and the help of game design studio AREYES. MOES prioritizes working with children abroad, ensuring the continuation of Ukrainian studies. They are actively working to include Ukrainian studies (language, literature, history, geography) in European schools through the International Ukrainian School (MUSH) . Acknowledging that Ukrainian studies are not taught systematically enough, this app serves as a supplementary tool.
Distribution will be in partnership through:
EdEra’s communication channels, reaching children, teachers, and educational institutions, with 75% of all Ukrainian teachers studying on the EdEra platform; Cooperation with MOES, disseminating information through education departments, school principals, local offices of foundations, international organizations, diasporas, and ministries of education in other countries; Involvement of the World Congress of Ukrainians, spreading the game among diasporas in 60 countries; and Financial support from UCAP at the initial funding stage, communication with the American community, and assistance in securing further funding.
MOES also plays a crucial role in identifying the needs of displaced persons, understanding their cultural influence, and communicating with other countries and diasporas to ensure the successful integration of Ukrainian studies abroad.
Action Plan
Co-Educational Era (EdEra) is developing the game’s Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) with support from the Ukraine Children’s Action Project. Their financing covers the alpha version of the application, including key educational mechanics and three individual play routes.
This stage began in August 2024 and includes:
Preparation Stage (1.5 months) : Finalizing the project concept, game formats, and content.
Approving the concept, developing the project brand, marketing materials, and guidelines for experts.
Development of Three Routes & Technical Backend Work (2 months) : Engaging experts to write route scripts (videos, quizzes, dialogues) , finalizing the technical task for the software team and deploying the game’s internal architecture.
Production of Content for Three Routes (2.5 months) : Designing, shooting, and post-producing all game components and routes, including animations, character drawings, training videos, frontend user journey, and backend game architecture.
MVP Application Testing & Release (5 months) : The working version of the game will be ready by August 2024.
Further stages depend on fundraising. EdEra, the Ministry of Education and Science (represented by Yevhen Kudriavets) , and UCAP representatives are involved in this process. There is an approximate general framework for the next stages, which EdEra and MoES are currently targeting to complete the work before the public launch of the full version of the game:
Developing a cooperative game format (1 month) ;
Developing a local game format (1 month) ;
Database and analytics module development (1 month) ; and
Developing 20 educational routes (7 months) .
The duration and scope of the communication strategy depend on the budget, with stages running parallel based on possibilities of the financial resources.
Background
This commitment addresses the critical need to support Ukrainian identity among the diaspora and refugees, especially children and youth. As of June 2023, there are 4.3 to 5.4 million Ukrainians in the diaspora, with 25% being children (1 to 1.35 million, CES.org) . This underscores the urgent need to preserve their cultural and historical identity. Indirect target audiences include parents and children who left before February 24, the diaspora, Ukrainian Saturday and Sunday schools, and those still in Ukraine.
Co-educational Era (EdEra) did a survey of over 2,700 parents and interviews with teachers and children revealed a significant fear of losing cultural and linguistic identity (EdEra) . The research highlighted the importance of creating an engaging product that facilitates quality time (children with peers abroad and in Ukraine, with teachers, and parents) , is gamified and exciting to maintain children’s attention and adapts to the educational process, integrating into school curricula with methodological recommendations for teachers and Saturday and Sunday schools.
The survey showed 62.2% of parents see losing identity as a significant issue, 48.3% are dissatisfied with Ukrainian-language content quality, and 76.7% support creating a learning platform. This highlights the need for high-quality, engaging, educational content to keep children connected to Ukraine.
The project aims to preserve Ukrainian children’s identity abroad through three components: Ukrainian language proficiency, knowledge of Ukrainian history, and preservation of cultural traditions.
EdEra, with the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) as the Implementing partner, proposes developing an educational application for children in Ukraine and abroad. MOES will engage potential donors and promote the application to users in Ukraine and beyond.
The application will be an interactive map of Ukraine, where players travel by train, complete educational quizzes, watch videos, pass tests, and move from station to station.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
The biggest need for the game right now is to raise funding to develop it beyond the Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) stage.
This initiative has a fundraising strategy and a pool of potential donors who could provide such funding, outlined below.
Co-Educational Era (EdEra) closely cooperates with the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) of Ukraine, which, at its level, negotiates with large foundations and organizations regarding the game. The strategy for finding further funds is to consolidate the resources of the studio and the MoES.
CGI can join the informational support about the initiative and support of Ukrainian society and cultural identity of Ukraine among its partners or in the future co-finance of further development stages.
Also, as of the time this application was completed, UNICEF had shown great interest in financing the next stages of project development and should make a final decision in the following days., Co-Educational Era (EdEra) invites partners to join the project financially or through media for further development and distribution among target audience segments. In return, EdEra is committed to placing partners’ logos in the game, including disclaimers, and mentioning the game in all public communications. This partnership will enhance the partner organization’s visibility and engagement with a broad audience.
The studio also allows partners to integrate into the game at various levels. For instance, they can co-develop thematic routes and create branded in-game rewards, such as backpacks or caps for characters upon completing a partner’s route. This way, children, their parents, and teachers will become familiar with the partner organization while players gain extra motivation to complete tasks.
EdEra also offers partners to assume the role of Implementing Partners, as has been the case with the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) of Ukraine.