Books Without Borders
How did it start?
The idea began to take shape in a bomb shelter during our visit to Ukraine for the United24 Summit. When we were in Stryi, an air siren went off, leading us to the nearest shelter at the school where our co-founder, Anna, had studied. There were hundreds of children and adults packed into the shelter when one of the English teachers noticed our team was speaking English. She shared with us that the school was in desperate need of books for the children and asked if we could bring these books from the UK with little hope that the answer would be "yes". But without hesitation, our co-founder, Derek, said “of course we’ll do it!”. And then we came together with the Penguin Random House team, receiving incredible support and belief in our mission.
Our results:
Ukraine
In Autumn 2023, our team has successfully completed the mission of our recent aid trip to Ukraine, carrying 500 English-language books for Ukrainian children and youth generously donated by Penguin Random House and 4 rigid inflatable boats generously donated by Survitec Group.
We have delivered the generous donation of 500 English books for Ukraine to:
Ukrainian schools in Stryi that our co-founder, Anna, had attended, Brody and Sumy.
Youth centres in Lutsk , Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Kropyvnytskyi, Lviv, Chernihiv and Cherkasy.
WIKI library and Public libraries in Lviv.
England
The collaboration with the schools, public libraries and youth centres resulted in the donation of approximately 300 Ukrainian-language books, which we then delivered to Ukrainian children in the UK.
We have already delivered some of these books to Milton Keynes Central Library and a recently opened Ukrainian Saturday School in Bedford. And it was our best reward to see the joy on the faces of the children who received the books.
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Anna Merchuk(co-founder) &Penguin Random House books
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School in Stryi,Ukraine
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School in Stryi, Ukraine
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Penguin Random House books
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Penguin Random House
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Ukrainian Saturday School in Bedford
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Ukrainian Saturday School in Bedford.
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Penguin Random House books
Initiatives
The project began to gain momentum when a 15-year-old student Kimberly at St Paul’s school approached us with an initiative to volunteer for Nadiya.
She was excited to hear from us about the book exchange, as she is a real book fan, and together we came up with the idea of involving her school in collecting books for Ukrainian children and youth.
We believed that it would be incredibly important to involve Ukrainian students from her school in collecting English books for their schools in Ukraine and to creat a twinning of schools. It's fascinating how life takes unexpected turns and from just one conversation in a bomb shelter, the concept of a transformative project began to take shape.
What does the future of the initiative look like?
Inspired by the success of this initiative and the positive impact it has had, we eager to continue delivering English books to Ukraine and, in return, bringing back Ukrainian books to Ukrainian communities in the UK. We believe that this exchange will not only spread the love for literature but also foster some awesome cultural connections.
Also, we continue to receive requests from other schools and youth centers in Ukraine for English books. They believe that English books expand the educational opportunities for many as well as serve as a source of inspiration for the search for knowledge and personal growth. Additionally, in Ukraine, English is becoming a requirement for many government jobs and other employment sectors, which creates an urgent need for fluency in English among those who wish to contribute to the development of the country.
How could you support us?
Donation
Donation of English or Ukrainian-language books .
Implemetion
Implementing an initiative to collect English or Ukrainian-language books in your community.
Collaboration
Putting us in contact with organisations that could assist us in collecting books or providing support in other capacities.