Help us build a library for Svitlo School students by donating or buying books in English
How to Donate#GiftABookForSvitlo
#SvitloReads
At Svitlo School, Ukrainian children are passionate about learning English and want to read English books. Unfortunately, English books are difficult for them to obtain. There are limited English books in the standard Ukrainian curriculum, and buying English books in Ukraine can be very expensive.
We want to create a Svitlo School Library, so that all our students from across Ukraine can access English books. Svitlo means ‘light’ and you can help bring this to Ukrainian children by donating a new or pre-loved book to our online library and help us supply school bomb shelters at Ukrainian schools with English books. You can send us pre-loved books from your own collection, purchase a book from our wish list or contribute to our postage fund to send books to Ukraine.
We know that childhood reading brings profound and varied benefits in cognitive development, language, educational attainment and wellbeing. But for Ukrainian children, the benefits are even greater:
Help us create a library and fuel our students’ imagination, curiosity, knowledge and future success.
We have 2 cohorts of students - our Juniors are 10-13 years old and our Seniors are 14-18 years old.
Across each cohort, students have varying degrees of English language proficiency. Some students will enjoy simpler books and others can take on more complex reads.
We hope to collect enough books and fundraise enough money to supply Ukrainian schools with bookboxes full of books in English like on the photo. Children often spent up to 5 hours a day in school bomb shelter in some part of Ukraine.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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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