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It all started with free English classes for prosthetics and rehabilitation specialists. Over time, the partnership between Hillel IT School and the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center expanded in a new direction: a free course created with a physical therapist for anyone who spends long hours working at a computer.
At first, Hillel’s educational expertise became a resource for UNBROKEN specialists. Later, UNBROKEN’s hands-on expertise was transformed into a free educational resource available to people across Ukraine.
Every day, specialists at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center provide rehabilitation, prosthetics, and recovery support to people affected by the war. At the same time, professional development in this field increasingly depends on international knowledge exchange – communicating with colleagues abroad, taking part in internships and training programs, and gaining access to new practices and technologies.
All of this requires English.
That specific need is what brought UNBROKEN and Hillel IT School together in 2025. Hillel offered UNBROKEN specialists the opportunity to study English free of charge.
The idea was for English to become more than just another skill. It was meant to serve as a practical professional tool – helping specialists work with international resources, communicate with colleagues from other countries, and learn from their experience.
English proficiency enables our specialists to broaden their horizons, exchange experience with colleagues abroad, and improve the quality of care we provide to our patients. We are already seeing tangible results from the project: our specialists are communicating more confidently in English and applying what they have learned in their work,
says Vladyslav Sikhovskyi, Head of the Prosthetics and Orthotics Center at UNBROKEN.
But over time, the partnership took an interesting turn.
This time, Hillel IT School and UNBROKEN decided to combine Hillel’s educational capabilities with the hands-on expertise of UNBROKEN specialists and make that knowledge accessible to as many people as possible.
That is how another joint initiative emerged in 2026 – the free video course “(Un)Healthy Habits: Quick Exercises for Your Body.” Created together with UNBROKEN physical therapist Andrii Novosad, the course is designed for people who spend long hours at a computer or sitting at work.
The goal is to address common physical issues associated with sedentary work by providing accurate, practical information in an accessible format: short videos with clear demonstrations. Just a few minutes are enough to add some healthy movement to the workday.
The seven short videos include exercises for the neck, lower back, hands, and eyes, as well as basic guidance on setting up a workspace and explanations that debunk common myths. Most of the exercises take just two to five minutes, require no special equipment, and are designed to fit easily into a regular work or study day.
Another principle was equally important: the educational content should not be presented as a substitute for professional medical care.
Every day, we see patients whose problems started with seemingly minor things – an uncomfortable posture while working on a laptop or persistent tension in the neck. These videos are not a substitute for consulting a healthcare professional, but they can help people develop healthier habits and prevent potential problems from becoming more serious,
says Andrii Novosad, a physical therapist at UNBROKEN.
The course is completely free and available on the Hillel Max platform. It is open not only to Hillel students and IT professionals, but to anyone who spends a significant amount of time sitting – office workers, teachers, school and university students, and people in many other professions.
These two initiatives have different audiences, formats, and even subject areas. But they share one underlying principle: each partner contributes the expertise it genuinely has.
Hillel brings its educational infrastructure, instructors, and experience in developing learning products. UNBROKEN brings the hands-on expertise of specialists who work with rehabilitation and physical recovery every day.
In the first initiative, Hillel’s educational resources give UNBROKEN specialists greater opportunities for professional development. In the second, the partnership helps bring the practical knowledge of UNBROKEN professionals to a much wider audience.
From the very beginning, we wanted this partnership to go beyond a single project. Hillel IT School has strong educational expertise, while UNBROKEN has an extraordinary mission – helping people – along with unique hands-on experience and knowledge that can be valuable far beyond the center itself. So we continue to look for areas where we can combine our strengths. That is how the course with a physical therapist came about. To me, this is exactly what makes partnerships like this valuable: rather than inventing a social-impact component for the sake of it, we look for areas where one team’s expertise is genuinely needed by the other – or where it can benefit a much larger number of people,
says Alina Pervushyna, Head of PR at Hillel IT School and the initiator of the joint course.
Meanwhile, the first initiative did not end with the initial group. More than 30 UNBROKEN specialists have already had the opportunity to study English at Hillel IT School free of charge. What matters about that figure is not so much the number itself, but what it demonstrates: the partnership continued beyond its initial launch.
The free course “(Un)Healthy Habits: Quick Exercises for Your Body” also remains freely available on the Hillel Max platform.
