Solutions to win: Children open library to save Ukraine's culture in frontline Donetsk region
Фото: facebook.com/zapekawl
Ukrainian schoolers from the frontline town of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region opened a library on their own to preserve literature that endured centuries of Russia's wipeouts.
What is the problem?
As Ukraine's culture has been suffering from Russian expansionist tendencies for centuries, thousands of Ukrainians put their best efforts to save the literature and preserve it in libraries, literature clubs, and museums. It is especially vital for the most war-affected regions, such as Donetsk, because Russia is pushing its anti-Ukrainian messages.
Reading is also useful for children, as it helps to reduce stress during wartime, develops children's imagination, and forms their best features, such as empathy, tolerance, and kindness.
What is the solution?
Ukrainian children decided to open their own library in Kurakhove with loads of literature.
How does it work?
Residents of Kurakhove! Everyone in the neighborhood knows Lisa and the Tanya's shop. The library is there. Take a book from the kids. Read it and return it. And then take another one and read it again. There are not enough books (yet). You will have to join the queue to find what is available, says local soldier and writer Vitalii Zapeka.
Zapeka says that artillery is reaching the town, "however, there are still children in Kurakhove." The oldest of the group, Yelyzaveta Hnoieva, is 14 years old. Kids collect children's and teenage literature in Ukrainian. The library does not accept books in Russian.
Vitaliy Zapeka said that the library has already received its first parcel of books.
The eastern Poltava-based Zlato Misto bookstore also collects books for the library: one can bring own books or buy them in the store, noting that they are for Kurakhove.
Previously, the Ukrainian military in the Donetsk region rescued five tons of books that were in libraries destroyed by Russian troops.
