Children and members of the local community in Kiev and Dniepropetrovsk in the Ukraine are the latest to benefit from ORT’s most recent activities in the Former Soviet Union. In September organisation lay leaders, donors and community officials joined World ORT’s Third International Mission to the Ukraine. The centrepiece of the mission was the official opening of the ORT school in Kiev. The school, which has a capacity for 250, has already enrolled 189 students. Facilities and equipment in the school are providing students with the highest level of technology curricula. Also in Kiev, a new ORT computer classroom was inaugurated at the Rabbi Bleich School. The laboratory provides the school, which has a student body of 400 boys and girls, with computer facilities. In addition, new ORT computer classroom was also officially dedicated at the Israeli Cultural Centre in Kiev. The facilities will benefit both students and members of the local Jewish community who are eager to make use of the specially- organised computer courses. Delegates of the mission also visited the existing ORT computer lab located in the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, the largest university in the Ukraine, serving 34,000 people. Also during the mission, the official opening of the new ORT technology centre at the Jewish School #144 in Dniepropetrovsk took place. Following the ceremony, the upgraded ORT computer classroom in the city’s Israeli Cultural Centre was also officially inaugurated. Also in Dniepropetrovsk, a new ORT computer laboratory was officially opened in the Beit Hana Pedegogical College. The centre is part of the JET 2000 Programme, (Jewish Education and Technology). In attendance at the ceremonies were representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, the regional governor, representatives of the local municipality and the Israeli ambassador to the Ukraine. Internal and regional media from all over the FSU and the Ukraine provided full media coverage throughout the events including a live television interview with the Director General of World ORT Mr Robert Singer. ‘ORT is paving the way in numerous ORT projects and activities throughout the FSU and the Ukraine,’ Mr Singer commented. ‘This is an important milestone in our contemporary history. It was this mission that took the first steps along the path of what I believe, will be a significant new presence and strength in this country.’ A final highlight of the mission was a tour around the Ukrainian major city of Zaporojeh where a new ORT technology centre is in the early stages of development. Mission delegates had the opportunity to meet with teachers and heads of municipalities who emphasized them of the urgent need for an upgrade in the quality of education throughout the country.