Books....

Over centuries, books have often been destroyed by authoritarian regimes. They have regularly been seen as a threat to dictatorships, especially if they deviate from the official line. The latest to go down this route is Russia. They would quite happily eradicate Ukrainian literature and arts. To a small degree we have been told what they did in the school we are trying to support. And this has been replicated in countless schools in Ukraine.

The good news is that we have already raised the thousand pounds that we were hoping to reach, in order to buy some new textbooks for the school. We received this message today from one of the donors who responded to to the appeal...

"Hi Fiona, (pictures attached) This picture is my 5 year old grand- daughter . She loves school and she loves books. There have been several “ war anniversary” programmes on tv this week, many focussing on Ukrainian children and the impact of the war on them. I read your last blog about the school in I."

He goes on to say that he has made a donation and then continues.... "Please use it to buy those books and please give them on behalf of H (my granddaughter). If she was old enough to understand  I know she would want those children to have what she takes for granted. I don’t donate to big charities as I don’t trust them..."

We have already been in contact with some publishing houses over here about purchasing the books and are looking to the school for guidance about getting the right ones. Even the purchase of books is not that easy. We were trying to arrange to go to the city of Chernihiv, near to the school, to buy the books but were told that the main bridge has been destroyed, and the pontoon bridge could not be used just now due to the bad weather conditions. We will get the books asap one way or another.

Trying to decide what to buy with the donations is something we discuss endlessly, not only between ourselves, but also with the people receiving the aid. We have learnt that it's no use just taking what happens to be in a warehouse, but taking what people actually need. Even then there is much thought to what is purchased.

I want to go back to the schools in Ukraine. As we have maybe alluded to, Ukraine, even before the war from what we have been told, was a quite unequal society. Parents who could afford to do so would send their children to private schools, and there are many of them, especially in the big cities. 

Most children, however, especially in the countryside, attended state schools. If the school we are supporting is anything to go by, it's obvious that it already lacked some basic resources. The war has made it much worse.

I am not sure that the state did much to promote state schools, even before the war. Surely this will have to change if the children in this school are to be equipped with the education required, to face the challenges of this country after the war. These are only our observations.

We are both a little under the weather at present. Fi has a problem with one of her kidneys so donating the other one would be out of the question! And I have a chest infection. We're in a state...!