Give a book to Ukrainian children affected by the war - help us create an English-language book library for students of Svitlo School by donating or purchasing books through our Svitlo Reads online store.
Buy English books for children in Ukraine through Svitlo Reads — we offer a wide selection of children's books with delivery 📦. ⠀
Every book you buy supports our mission of providing free education to children through the Svitlo School project. Together, we bring learning and hope to children who have lost access to education because of the war.
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At Svitlo School, Ukrainian children are passionate about learning English and are eager to read books in English.
Sadly, access to English-language books in Ukraine is very limited: the standard Ukrainian school curriculum offers only a few books in English, and buying children's English books in Ukraine is often very expensive.
We aim to create an English-language book library so that all Svitlo students across Ukraine can enjoy reading and learning.
Through Svitlo Reads, you can:
You can choose a book from our wishlist or send one from your own collection.
We know that children's reading provides powerful cognitive, language, academic, and well-being benefits. For Ukrainian children living through the realities of war, these benefits are even more crucial:
Help us create an English-language book library for children and nurture the imagination, curiosity, knowledge, and future success of our students.
Our English-language book library gathers books for two groups of students:
Within each group, students have different levels of English proficiency. Some students will enjoy simpler books, while others are ready to tackle more advanced material.
We are looking for English books in the following categories:
We hope to collect enough books and funds to send full book boxes filled with English-language books to Ukrainian schools, just like the ones shown in the photo.
In some parts of Ukraine, children spend up to 5 hours a day in school bomb shelters — and books offer them knowledge, comfort, and hope during those long hours.
Since English books are rare and expensive in Ukraine, we created a bookstore to make reading in English more accessible and enjoyable. With a wide variety of books collected in the UK, people in Ukraine can choose titles they love and have them delivered directly to their homes at very affordable prices. All proceeds are reinvested into the initiative.
Learn more...
During frequent and prolonged air raids, pupils in Ukraine are often forced to spend many hours in school bomb shelters. While some schools can continue lessons underground, many lack the necessary infrastructure. To make the time spent in shelters more enjoyable and educational, Svitlo installs mini-libraries in the shape of red telephone boxes, filled with interesting English books, in school underground shelters.
Learn more...
Some of Svitlo School's older pupils have been trained to deliver online reading lessons to our younger students. They teach pronunciation, explain word meanings, and help build confidence to encourage independent reading. Using the interactive platform Giglets during lessons, students discover that reading can be fun and enjoyable. This initiative not only improves the English literacy of our younger students but also provides our older students with teaching skills while enhancing their own English proficiency.
Learn more...
DONATE TO HELP WITH RUNNING COSTS
You can also make a donation on our Just Giving page, which will help us cover the cost of deliveries and the running of the project
PURCHASE/DONATE BOOKS
You can purchase a new or used book from our wish lists, choose a book you would like to buy yourself, or donate your like new books.
FOR SCHOOLS AND PUBLISHING HOUSES
Contribute to our Svitlo Library collection or help us supply a bomb shelter in a Ukrainian school with your new or pre-loved books.
The initiative to create the Svitlo School Library was inspired by our students. In spring 2024, through our partnership with Global Social Leaders (GSL), a group of Svitlo students participated in a global competition focused on developing projects that could positively impact their community. While enhancing their teamwork, problem-solving, and creative skills, they came up with an exciting idea for an online library.
Although they did not win the competition, you can see their entry here, their inspiring idea highlighted a gap in our resources. While we strive to provide a well-rounded education in English for our students, their access to English literature in Ukraine is limited, since books in English are relatively rare and expensive. Therefore, we decided to address this issue by creating our own Svitlo School Library.
Svitlo School is a registered charity in England and Wales with a very important mission - to empower the future political, social and business leaders of Ukraine to become global citizens. We provide a unique online educational sanctuary for Ukrainian children affected by war.
In 2022-2024 we have supported over 500 students by offering:
9,474
hours taught
540
students supported
63
classes per week
data Sep 2023 to Jul 2024
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