“People should revive the culture of supporting intellectual press”

“Few if any Ukrainian newspapers can boast of having regular readers for five or ten years. This is what the uniqueness of the newspaper Den is,” says Mykola Hrytsenko, the president of the Charitable Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives.

According to the initiators of the foundation, the idea to create an organization which would popularize Den’s projects that are so important for the society has emerged long ago. And finally it was realized in a proper moment, during the presentation of one of the books of the publication in Lviv. Two years ago, on December 7, the first constituent assembly of this organization was held, its statute was approved, and the members of the board, the monitoring assembly, and president of the Charitable Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives were elected. That was how the many-year partners and friends of Den became an organization which undertook a responsible task, to become an intensifier of the messages and purports of the newspaper.

“The idea to create a foundation emerged, when people who regularly stay in touch with Den felt that the newspaper became more than just a newspaper,” Mykola Hrytsenko recalls, “When it started to be involved in social projects: photo exhibits, book publishing, Summer School of Journalism, etc. Then at a forum of publishers in Lviv Iryna Kliuchkovska as a representative of this cohort of regular contributors and readers of Den, expressed an opinion: isn’t it the time for the readers and sympathizers of the newspaper to do something for it? This idea gained support, and we decided to create a separate organization, which we called the Charitable Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives.”

ACCORDING TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF THE NEWSPAPER DEN’S INITIATIVES, THE PUBLICATION HAS BEEN DE FACTO A NEWSPAPER OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY FOR MANY YEARS. THAT IS THE REASON WHY THE COMMUNITY FELT THE NEED TO SUPPORT ITS NEWSPAPER, THE NEWSPAPER’S EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS, PRODUCED BY ITS TEAM. IN THE PHOTO: MYKOLA HRYTSENKO AND DEN’S PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER ANNA KHABAROVA / Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day

According to Hrytsenko, the main task of the foundation is to attract as many readers as possible to the newspaper. “The valuable intellectual product of the newspaper Den must be spread in masses,” he considers. “It is gratifying that this year our initiative has helped to publish the photo album People of the Maidan.  A        Chronicle, new edition of Klara Gudzyk’s Apocrypha, and Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25. Our major efforts are aimed at attracting as many schools, libraries of Ukraine, especially in the east, as possible, to Den. At the moment we are working on the action ‘Den in the east’: we want to focus our attention on the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, so that the newspaper and the books reached the schools.”

On the day of the anniversary of existence of the Charitable Foundation, its members expressed their support for the initiatives of the newspaper and recalled their so-far short-lasting, but important work.