Together with their parents and teachers, 90 graduates of the Ukrainian Educational Centre Vienna (UEC) celebrated their graduation (Випускний 2022) on 13 July.

The students received their certificates from Viktoriya Hryaban, Director of the UEC, and Margit Wolf, Managing Director of Interface Vienna. Harald Kröger, CEO of Raiffeisen Centrobank, Lukasz Januszewski, RBI Board Member for Markets and Investment Banking, Andrii Stepanenko, RBI Board Member for Retail Banking, and Herbert Stepic, founder of the Stepic CEE Charity, joined the crowd of well-wishers and did not miss the opportunity to give the young people some personal words of encouragement.

As a thank you for parents, teachers and guests, the graduates prepared a top-class concert - with live piano, guitar and singing. In April 2022, Raiffeisen Centrobank, together with the Stepic CEE Charity and the City of Vienna, founded the Ukrainian Education Centre Vienna. The project ended at the end of August. 

Raiffeisen Centrobank, the City of Vienna and private donors – including Stepic CEE Charity – are sponsoring in equal shares an education centre for Ukrainian youths who have come to Vienna due to the war in their country. The idea for this education centre and its rapid implementation is thanks to dedicated volunteers from Raiffeisen Centrobank and Raiffeisen Bank International.

After only four weeks of preparation, the Ukrainian Education Centre Vienna opened its doors to more than 60 young people in the former premises of Raiffeisen Centrobank on April 1, 2022. Up to 120 young people aged 16 and over will be taught Ukrainian, math and English over the next few months by teachers who themselves had to flee Ukraine. The youths shall be enabled to complete their schooling or prepare for university in the summer. In addition, they have the opportunity to learn German or to improve their language skills.

To mitigate the language barriers two senior volunteers, who are experienced university (of applied sciences) teachers, are teaching German together with the Ukrainian teachers for two hours a week. The students have already settled in very well at the educational centre and are showing impressive diligence.

Interested young people can contact the following address:
uec-vienna@interface-wien.at

Here you can find a short video about the Ukrainian Education Centre Vienna:

"The Ukrainian Educational Center helps students from Ukraine to continue their educational path in Austria seamlessly. It is very important to offer young people, who had to leave their country and environment, the opportunity for education and a future perspective.  However, the education center should not only be a place of learning, but also a place for all social aspects: Especially in this difficult and stressful situation, young people need social interaction with their peers and a bit of their everyday life back. I am pleased that we were able to launch this innovative project together!"

Vice Mayor of the City of Vienna Christoph Wiederkehr

If you would also like to support the project, please donate to Stepic CEE Charity IBAN: AT48 3200 0000 0010 0099 stating the intended purpose: Educational Center Tegetthoffstraße