Hospitalized Students Granted State Diplomas Through Samsung’s ‘Hope for Children’ Program

On June 22^nd graduates of Samsung’s ‘Hope for Children’ remote learning program received their high school diplomas from Russian Education Minister Olga Vasilieva in Moscow. The ‘Hope for Children’ project provides students with full access to the state educational curriculum through digital learning tools in hospitals where paper books are prohibited for hygienic purposes.

The ‘Hope for Children’ program seeks to address the fact that 120,000-130,000 Russian and CIS children undergo long-term, in-house medical treatment every year, and are not able to attend school. Classes are held in specially designed hospital classrooms as well as individually in cases where the child is unable to attend lessons in the classroom. Present at the graduation ceremony, the program head Sergey Sharikov said: “Staying in the hospital does not mean that children need to stop learning. Children definitely need to learn, interact with other kids and be engaged in creative processes.”

Minister Vasilieva presented diplomas in Samsung ‘Hope for Children’ branded folders to 40 ninth and eleventh graders during the graduation ceremony at Dmitry Rogachev Children’s Hospital, which in 2014 became the pilot site for Samsung’s ‘Hope for Children’ remote learning initiative. The Russian Education Ministry’s Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science has granted ‘Hope for Children’ exceptional permission allowing students to take state exams through the project. This measure empowers children unable to attend school for extended periods of time to keep up with the state exams and gain university entrance along with their peers.

The Dmitry Rogachev Children’s Hospital was built by executive order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and enters around 2,000 children from more than 85 regions into the ‘Hope for Children’ program each year. Expansion of the program has been widespread, with 17 new locations introduced across Russia and other CIS countries since 2014, and three more to be added by 2020.

Other attendants of the graduation ceremony included Alexander Rumyantsev, President of the Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center, Galina Novichkova, General Director of the Center, Evgeny Yamburg, Director of The Yamburg School, and Arina Sharapova, TV Anchor and ‘Hope for Children’ project ambassador. In a special announcement, the ceremony’s organizers expressed their immense “gratitude and appreciation” to Samsung for its long-term partnership on the project.

Speaking at the graduation, Sergey Pevnev, Director of PA and Corporate Projects at Samsung Electronics CIS remarked that “Hope for Children’s mission is to allow children receiving long-term medical treatment to continue learning, be creative, interact with their peers, and – at the end – get diplomas.” He went on to point out that “Samsung’s technological solutions open up additional opportunities for students, and allow them to master the school program in an exciting, interactive format.”