New participants of the third stage of P.AGE project

On December 25, on the occasion of Christmas, the B50 community sent sets of books to the next three participants of the national stage of the P.AGE project. The parcels should arrive on New Year’s Eve, so they will be a great gift for libraries. We’ll tell you what kind of gift below 😊

But first of all, we would like to thank our reliable partners who help us implement the P.AGE project:

  • to the Bundlex company, which provided funds for the purchase of necessary literature for these three libraries and previously sponsored the reconstruction and decoration of two children’s bomb shelters (in Nova Hreblia and Borodianka);
  • the editorial board of “Odnoklasnyk” (“Однокласник”)magazine, which donated annual sets of the magazine to libraries;
  • Hanna Ostapenko, the author of textbooks on the Ukrainian language and world knowledge, who donated them to the Marhanets Lyceum No. 9, which lacks such literature;
  • partner publishers: АССА, Vivat, Zhorzh, Knigolove, Monolith-Bizz, Osnova, Ranok, PORTAL, RM, Talant, Chas Maistriv, Chitarium, who provide discounts on book purchases;
  • a partner carrier of Nova Poshta, which delivers parcels from B50 to recipients quickly and free of charge.

Thus, the participants of the national phase of the P.AGE project were:

Library of Marhanets Lyceum No. 9 ( Dnipropetrovsk region)

Marhanets is actually on the front line, so it is under constant shelling from heavy weapons and drones. And after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was blown up, the city was left without centralized water supply. Currently, water is available in the taps, but only for technical purposes; people take drinking water from water trucks every day, sometimes standing in lines during air raids.

During one of the constant shelling, the building of Marhanets Lyceum No. 9 was damaged (the shock wave broke the windows of the library), where more than fifty children (including IDPs) are currently studying online.

Despite the fact that the lyceum is relatively young (it has been operating since 1986), the library collection is outdated, with only 35% of books in Ukrainian and 40% published after 2004, and a lack of Ukrainian-language books for the school curriculum and specialized literature.

At the same time, lyceum students love to read, and librarians are active. In particular, they hold a campaign called “Present a Book to the Library” in which people from different parts of the country send fiction and specialized literature in Ukrainian to the library of Lyceum No. 9.

The B50 community decided to join the donors and sent a set of 50 modern Ukrainian-language educational books to Marhanets, which will definitely improve and diversify the library collection of Lyceum No. 9.

“Present a Book to the Library”
“Present a Book to the Library”
“Present a Book to the Library”

Library of Savyntsi Lyceum (Kharkiv region)

Savyntsi is a picturesque town located on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets River in the Izium district of Kharkiv region, the center of the Savyntsi territorial community.

For six months, the community was under russian occupation. It was six months of torture and abuse. 18 settlements of the community were left without livelihoods, electricity and gas, and it was difficult to bring in Ukrainian humanitarian aid. During this time, the enemy destroyed 18 social infrastructure facilities and more than 500 residential buildings. Three schools (out of four) and one club were destroyed to the ground and cannot be restored. Savyntsi Music School was also damaged – windows were smashed, a large hole in the roof, and all musical instruments were lost.

Fortunately, the Savyntsi Lyceum, where 550 children (including IDPs) are currently studying remotely, was not seriously damaged (the only one in the entire community!). The building survived, but the occupiers took 69 computers and all the projectors were torn out so that they cannot be restored.

The library of the institution miraculously did not suffer any losses – the entire book collection remained on the shelves, but needs to be updated. Currently, the fiction collection includes 10,648 titles, of which only 30% are in Ukrainian, most of them published in the last century. The books for primary and secondary school age are most lacking.

The set of 50 new Ukrainian-language books donated by the B50 community will be a great addition to the Savyntsi Lyceum’s library collection.

Library of the Kiliia Secondary School No. 3 (Odesa region)

Although Killia was not under occupation, the residents of the city felt the presence of russian troops on the nearby Zmiinyi Island (“Snake Island”). The city was shelled a lot and often, and Kiliia was not destroyed only due to the excellent work of air defense. The townspeople also went through the enemy’s information and psychological attacks about landings and “you have nowhere to run”, but they bravely withstood.

Unfortunately, Odesa region is still suffering from constant attacks by enemy drones. Despite this, the building of Kiliia Secondary School No. 3 was fortunately not damaged. Today, 582 children are studying here in a mixed form (full-time and distance learning). The school has a bomb shelter.

The library collection is sorely lacking in Ukrainian-language books. Several times the school held the ” Present a Book to the Library” campaign, but this did not solve the problem, and there is still a lack of fiction, science and historical literature in Ukrainian. And such literature is extremely necessary, because Kiliia is located on the very border with Romania and the majority of the population is russian-speaking.

Since the P.AGE project aims not only to update frontline and de-occupied libraries but also to distribute Ukrainian-language literature to replace old russian and soviet books, the B50 community donated a set of 50 modern publications to Kiliia School No. 3 to inspire young people to read and learn the language.