Over 15,000 books for children collected in Lviv

LVIV — Over 15,000 books for orphans, boarding schools and children from low-income families in Lviv and Lviv oblast were gathered in the course of the charitable project “Give a Child a Book as a Gift,” organized and carried out by the NGO Publishers’ Forum. “We were supported by all the libraries in Lviv and 183 organizations in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, also in Lviv, Luhansk, and Kirovohrad oblasts (they donated books and money), as well as by 3,500 private individuals. It’s a pity that few higher schools took part in the project, though,” Forum’s president Oleksandra Koval told The Day.

The organizers set their objective at 30,000 books. “Of course, we’d want to collect a hundred thousand books, considering that there are one hundred thousand families in Lviv that could donate at least one book each, but we were happy to end up with fifteen thousand books, last year it was only five thousand,” continued Koval. She adds that, regrettably, not all such books find their way to children because of their condition. As it was, the volunteers determined that 2,500 books were too damaged to be handed over to the young readers. The rest were duly registered, packed into crates with addresses, and delivered to 46 children’s institutions in Lviv and Lviv oblast.

The first to receive a shipment of books was the special boarding school in Velyky Liubyn. Yurko, 17, told The Day he loved the tales about Ivasyk-Telesyk and Kolobok. Iryna, 17, was fond of reading the Holy Bible and a tale about swans. Bohdana, 16, said, “I can sing, paint, and run well, and everybody loves me because I’m polite…” This school accommodates 87 special-needs children. “Some children can be taught to read, others can’t. They’re especially fond of fairy tales, legends, and stories from Ukrainian history. It’s important for the books to be well illustrated because not all of our children can read them,” says the school librarian, Natalia Krupach. The shipment contained 270 such books. As soon as the box was opened they started eagerly leafing through the books.