Oleksii Goncharenko studied foreign languages since childhood and even taught English to children while studying at school. It was his love for languages and a great desire to help people that inspired him to found the Ukrainian network of educational and cultural Goncharenko Centres. The main goal is to enable residents of small towns of Ukraine to learn foreign languages for free and improve their skills in other areas of science, art, and provide social activities opportunities.
Thousands of children and adults visited social and cultural centres, thanks to free courses, schoolchildren improved their knowledge and easily entered universities, and adults received a great motivation for learning foreign languages and inspiration for mastering new knowledge. During 3 years we held over 50 000 events and our centres were visited by 600 000 people.
The Goncharenko Centres are funded by patrons and sponsors who are ready to invest in education and a better future for Ukrainians.
As of February, 2024, there were 31 Goncharenko Centres and an online platform teaching tens of thousands of Ukrainians of all ages free of charge every month. The Goncharenko Centre employs about 120 people.
After the start of the war, the Goncharenko Centres were reformatted into volunteer hubs, which now help not only the injured and Ukrainians in need, but also the military. In 2023, the Goncharenko centres team across the country raised more than UAH 5,500,000 to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For these funds, we have purchased more than 20 vehicles, dozens of drones of various types (surveillance, reconnaissance and FPV drones), dozens of Starlinks, more than 10 anti-drone rifles, contracted a Chaklun UAV for the Special Forces, and equipped a command and control vehicle for the Kyiv Sich battalion.
The Goncharenko Centre Online has also launched free specialized English courses for military personnel. About 1,000 soldiers of the Defence Forces are already taking courses with our teachers.
As of June 4th, 2022, as a result of shelling and bombing, 1 939 educational institutions were damaged, 184 of them were completely destroyed, and now 1170 educational institutions are located in the temporarily occupied territories.
The new mission of Goncharenko Centres is to be a relief for those in need of continuous education by providing both – free courses themselves and humanitarian aid to meet people’s basic needs. Every week 10 680 people visit our centres to receive help and educational opportunities.
In 2023, new Goncharenko centres were opened in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Rohan and Odesa.
In May 2023 our team, together with the University of Pennsylvania, launched a special English course – English for career development, which was successfully completed by 400 Ukrainians.
More than 50 000 events at the Goncharenko Centre include not only English and Ukrainian language courses, but also Polish, German, Italian, French and even Chinese courses from qualified teachers. Among other activities in Goncharenko centres are: free Driving theory courses for Ukrainians, free 3D printing workshops, the all-Ukrainian project to support women from military families, Plus-Plus, providing wives, sisters and mothers of defenders with free legal aid and psychological support.
