Feedback from participants of the national phase of the P.AGE project

The third stage of the P.AGE project continues, as part of which the B50 community donates sets of 50 cool Ukrainian-language books to children’s libraries of schools and communities affected by the hostilities or that have survived the occupation.

To purchase books for this stage of the project, we have launched an international fundraising campaign. US citizens have already joined it: John Harthorne offered to provide the B50 community with funds raised by his children Max (17) and Yulia (13) in their Lemons for Learning project. The teenagers launched a non-profit project in the United States: they sell lemonade and other products at children’s lemonade stands and do so for charity, including educational. In this way, they raise funds for children’s developmental and educational opportunities around the world. Max and Yulia raised $1,000. With these funds, we have purchased sets of books for three libraries! We are grateful to John, Max and Yulia, as well as to everyone who supports P.AGE!

So far, 5 participants of the third stage of the project have received sets of 50 books, namely:

• The library of Shandryholove village (Donetsk region),
• Khrystoforivka village library branch (Mykolaiv region),
• The library of Bilopillia Gymnasium No. 5 (Sumy region),
• The library of the Ripky Lyceum (Chernihiv region),
• The library of the Kozacholopanskyi Lyceum (Kharkiv region).

For its part, the B50 community has already received feedback from the first three libraries on the list. We are sharing the feedback with you.

Library of Shandryholove village

According to Oleksandra Voloshyna, the head of the library, local children read a lot, so with the help of the P.AGE project, the staff wanted to get educational literature that expands a child’s understanding of the world, develops thinking, memory, imagination, and vocabulary.

Before the war, the library regularly hosted book exhibitions, events, literary readings, meetings with local poets, reading diaries, and literary games.

According to Oleksandra, the most popular books among the ones she received would be the following: Old Enough to Save the Planet by Loll Kirby, These Amazing Ukrainians by I.Taranenko, 100 Things To Know About Numbers.

Khrystoforivka village library branch

According to the branch manager, library users, especially children and youth, are interested in educational, informative, and reference books.

To get children interested in reading, various public events are held here: information days, literature reviews, book presentations and book exhibitions, literary and local history readings, literary evenings, poetry and history hours, etc. The library’s collection is also popularized through social media: advertising new publications, creating book trailers, virtual book exhibitions, bibliographic reviews, etc.

According to the head of the branch, the most popular books among the received publications will be the following: the encyclopedia “The Big Book of Why?”, “Cool History of Ukraine” by Iryna Kovalyshyn, “Kay’s Anatomy ” by Adam Kay, “For Kids About Intimate Things” by Yulia Yarmolenko.

Library of Bilopillia Gymnasium №5

Olena Selyuk, a librarian, shares her impressions of participating in the P.AGE project:

Currently, there are very few organizations that help children with books. And when this opportunity arose, I was certainly interested in it. After all, our students are already suffering from the hostilities, and here is a hope to delight them with something new and interesting. Our teaching and student staff are very grateful to the teenagers from the United States (and their parents) for such a valuable gift for our school. Thank you for choosing to support your project and our school! We wish them health and inspiration for charity in support of children around the world!

To encourage children to read, Bilopillia Gymnasium No. 5 offers online library tours and online literary presentations. Teachers discuss the books they have read with students and emphasize the importance of reading.

According to Olena, the most interesting for the library users will be “Book Travel. Independent”, “Book Travel. Ukraine” and “Cool History of Ukraine. From dinosaurs to the present”.

We are glad that books from B50 find their readers and bring them joy! We are grateful to everyone who joins the P.AGE project and urge you not to stop, because there are still many libraries ahead 😊