We are pleased to announce the launch of a crowdfunding appeal to buy and deliver a mobile library to Ukraine.

We hope to raise £10,000, with which we will purchase a decommissioned, fully serviced mobile library from an English council and deliver it to Ukraine. The idea for the appeal came from staff at Library Country Ukraine, a Ukrainian public library charity with which Libraries Connected has been working since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

With more than 600 public libraries and 2,000 school libraries damaged or destroyed by Russian troops, communities in the worst affected areas of Ukraine are unable to access a library at all. A mobile library would allow librarians to provide a service even when their static libraries have been destroyed or are dangerous to use.

If the appeal meets its target, the mobile library will be driven across Europe to the Ukraine border where it will be handed over to Ukrainian library workers and taken into Ukraine. The mobile library will likely be used in the Donetsk, Kherson or Zaporizhzhia regions in the east of the country.

Isobel Hunter MBE, chief executive of Libraries Connected, said:

When our Ukrainian colleagues asked if we could help source them a mobile library, we were only too happy to help. We’ve heard such heartbreaking stories from Ukraine – of libraries destroyed, collections burned and library workers killed. This may be a relatively small gesture but it will make a big difference to our partners in Ukraine and the communities they serve.

Lyusyena Shum, Executive Director of Library Country Ukraine, said:

It is our dream to have a mobile library. It would allow Ukrainian librarians to provide moral support to local people who have lived through occupation while giving them access to education, culture and of course, books. It would be a wonderful message of solidarity from Britain and a way to keep Ukrainian cultural heritage alive.

The appeals runs for eight weeks until 5 June 2024

Donations can be made at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mobile-library-to-ukraine.