March 23, 2022

Morning Joe featured a segment this morning on all the different ways Ukraine refugee children are being accepted.

"More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, many of them children. NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella has a look how schools in Europe and around the world are finding ways to make those kids feel at home," Mika Brzezinski said.

"At this school in Warsaw, English lessons. A new language, a new alphabet for these kids who fled the war in Ukraine."

REPORTER: Do you like being in school?

"Yes. I like it. I have a lot of friends and teachers."

REPORTER: The school decorated with the Ukrainian national flower, sunflowers drawn by its students.

"Doing our best to make them feel happy here, forget about bad things."

REPORTER: Around the world, schools are opening classrooms and their hearts to Ukraine's children. Handing out gift bags in the country's colors. Waving flags and cheering them on. This video in Italy went viral. In Spain, a whole classroom of hugs for this little boy from Ukraine. And prayers at a Catholic school in Chicago, where many of the students are Ukrainian Americans.

"We feel a bit helpless sometimes and doing this I think really makes us feel a bit, like, better."

REPORTER: In Connecticut, Woodstock Academy is flying the Ukrainian flag and making space for ten refugee students. The first two already settling in.

"You just know that they're scared. We can provide something to them that they really need right now. They need a little stability, a little safety."

REPORTER: Volunteers in Berlin set up a whole new school funded by donors paying refugee moms to teach refugee kids.

"I think most important thing was to give them lessons in their own language."

REPORTER: In Poland, parents line up early every morning for a national I.D. card so their children can go to school.

"How do you find it in Poland? Do you like it here?"

"Yes."

REPORTER: 10-year-old Ilya's mom saying, the most important thing, he's safe.

Ukraine's first lady writing "thank you" in a French newspaper. "The way you reacted is worthy of a collective Nobel peace prize. Our children will never forget what you've done for us."

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