Hunt for the Nightingales is a humanitarian initiative rallying Primary and Secondary students around the world to help their peers in Ukraine whose schools have been bombed and education halted.

Goal: Humanitarian aid of 50,000 laptops for Ukrainian Primary and Secondary school students in frontline and borders regions with Russia, who are currently without education as they do not have the means to secure a device for remote learning.

Hunt for the Nightingales is a humanitarian initiative rallying students from Primary and Secondary schools around the world, supported by a global network of influential K-12 EdTech companies from each country, to join the Hunt for 50,000 laptops for vulnerable Ukrainian students on the frontline and Russian borders.

Hunt for the Nightingales is scheduled to go live on 18 February 2026, with the support of official partners UNESCO, Lenovo and EdTechNZ, and close collaboration with Ukraine Ministry of Education and Global Education Coalition.

Hunt for the Nightingales originated at King’s, a Boys’ High School in the lower South Island of New Zealand, when a former student/now School Principal in Kyiv was visiting home and gave a talk at Assembly about the experience of being a student when your classroom is inside a bomb shelter. The reality of what their Ukrainian peers were living through made the young King’s men appreciate how fortunate they are to be living in a safe country down the bottom of the world. The brutal realisation of their good fortune compared to many others in the world, galvanised them into action. With support from their Rector, Mr Nick McIvor, King’s students co-created Hunt for the Nightingales with international impact consultancy, Eco Shepherd

As champions of accessible, inclusive education for students everywhere, the EdTech sector was also natural partner for Nightingales, most notably those organisations with a strong philanthropic ethos built into their mission. We’ve assembled an incredible group of purpose-led EdTech Founders and CEOS to champion the Nightingales initiative and help ensure that the Nightingales message reaches every corner of the world. 

*Nightingales are the national animal of Ukraine.

**Any laptops funded over the 50,000 target, will go to Ukrainian teaching staff & temporary schools.

In war-torn Ukraine, education has become a lifeline for the hundreds of thousands of students whose schools lie in ruins. For vulnerable students, of all ages -particularly those from low-income families and orphanages—remote learning is often their only path to a future. Yet, without laptops, even this opportunity slips away.

The journey towards Ukraine's recovery is undoubtedly fraught with complexities and hurdles. Particularly education, which is so much more than just infrastructure. Education is considered to be a strategic component of Ukraine's resilience and a fundamental investment in the recovery, reconstruction and long-term prosperity of Ukraine. As shelling continues, the immediate priority is to provide safe access to education by building and equipping bomb shelters in schools, kindergartens and other social spaces. The highest cost for this is procuring devices for the students so that they can link into the remote education system which now operates across the majority of Ukraine.

UNICEF estimates that almost 75% of Ukraine’s 3.7 million students have experienced their schools being destroyed or relocated to bomb shelters with over 3500 missile & drone strikes on schools since 2022. Attacks on schools have continued unabated; leaving students struggling to retain knowledge, extending out to what they learnt back when Ukrainian schools were fully functioning. Additionally, 50,000 vulnerable students are still without the means to secure a laptop device for remote education.

At the start of the war in 2022, the Device Coalition was set up to secure 350,000 devices for vulnerable students with the means to access remote education. The Device Coalition has received great support and donations of devices from various governments and a couple of large private companies around the world, so now the number of devices needed is down to 50,000. Nightingales goal is to close this gap and ensure that education is available to every K-12 Ukrainian student despite living in an active war zone.

If you would like more details or are interested in participating in the Hunt for the Nightingales, either as an EdTech connector or as a fundraising school, please contact us on nightingales@ecoshepherd.com

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Nightingales are the national animal of Ukraine. Nightingales represent resilience and hope. 

  • DNo. Due to the cross-border All donations will be cross-borders transactions, so GST or Sales Taxes are not applicable. GST or Sales Tax is typically applied to purchase transactions, even as donations for charitable organisations, they are not applicable for this initiative as all donations are cross-border transactions.escription text goes here

  • Hunt for the Nightingales will be purchasing the laptops & software through several manufacturers who have provided us with a special Nightingales prices in USD. This means that we are able to avoid losing funds from currency fluctuactions.

  • New laptops is a prerequisite of the Ukraine Ministry of Education, as it means that every laptop received by students commences in identical condition. This reduces propensity for technical issues, which are difficult to overcome when many communities are devasted or remote rural.

  • IHunt for the Nightingales is an independent initiative fully owned by impact consultancy, Eco Shepherd Ltd, a limited liability company registered in New Zealand (Company No. 8963237). Eco Shepherd operates a Purpose over Profit social enterprise model, working on behalf of not-for-profits, in the provision of commercial strategy, operations, fundraising and initiatives to address major societal and environmental issues.

    As Eco Shepherd is working on behalf of NGOs and charities for Hunt for the Nightingales, organisations are able to receive a registered charity tax receipt for their purchase of Nightingale laptops, if required.

  • Our European logistics partner, Vector Global have experience sending humanitarian aid packages into Ukraine, and have an office in Kyiv. Vector Global will oversee and manage all the customs and regulatory paperwork associated with sending a humanitarian aid package in the Eastern Bloc.

  • The Ukraine Ministry of Education will work with each of the local education authorities across Ukraine, who have comprehensive lists of vulnerable students in their region, but unable to share those to the Ministry or elsewhere due to privacy regulations.

  • Humanitarian aid is the provision of material support and logistics that goes direct to people affected by natural disasters and military conflicts. Importantly, humanitarian aid aims to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity by providing essential needs during and immediately after a crisis. Education is considered an essential need.