Zimin Foundation has resumed support for the project #Books_follow: Books for Refugees. The project aims to collect and deliver books in the Ukrainian language to refugees centers in Europe. A team of volunteer librarians collects fiction and history books in Ukrainian for children and adults and delivers them to the cities around the world that are hosting displaced Ukrainians. 

At the moment #Books_follow is working on a shipping of books to Georgia, with Chisinau (Moldova), Balen (Belgium), and Padua (Italy) scheduled next. Once the project finalizes the agreement with the public library of Split (Croatia), books should be heading there as well. 

The Zimin Foundation first started supporting #Books_follow in August 2022, joining the online community of professional librarians who united to help Ukrainian refugee children to get books in the EU. This cooperation allowed the project to increase the number of books and deliveries, and expand operations beyond the EU, delivering over 5000 books through February 2023. #Books_follow project has now been resumed, you can follow it at #книжки_вслiд hashtag on social media. 

What’s more, the Zimin Foundation and #Books_follow are launching a new program aiming to restore Ukrainian library stocks, many of which have been marauded and destroyed. The pilot project targets 30 heavily hit libraries in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. The first two shipments of books will head to Dnepropetrovsk and Nikolayev regions, where libraries have been largely destroyed under occupation. The Zimin Foundation will help acquire basic library equipment and books from Ukrainian publishers. Since all the books are purchased from Ukrainian publishing houses, the project also helps support the nation’s publishing industry.

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