Halstan is about to deliver the 16,000 books for Ukrainian refugees in the UK as part of the pan European Books without Borders project. And its involvement came through a chance meeting at the London International Book Fair in April. Halstan chief executive Rupert Smith explains: “By chance we were introduced to the ambassador for Ukraine by the Publishers’ Licensing Services at the Book Fair. They were looking for help to produce these books and we worked out how it could be done.”
Halstan further enlisted Premier Paper and Canon as well as providing its own time, resources and funding, producing the books at its factory in Amersham. The heartland of Ukraine’s book publishing and printing industry is in Kharkiv and has been out of action since the start of the invasion.
The project culminated at a presentation at the British Library to hand over the books last week.
The aim has been to help ease the anxiety of the children and to help continue their education through the connection to their homeland that book’s provide.
A selection of 40 Ukrainian children and their mothers were given a tour of the British Library before the meeting last week where they were greeted by virtual presence of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Rystaiko, PLS chief executive Sarah Faulder and Smith gave presentations while First Lady Zelenska read from some of the books.
These covered the age range from picture books for the youngest to young adult fiction. The publishing rights from Ukraine’s leading publishers were waived and they were also able to supply the digital artwork needed by Halstan. A native speaker was used to ensure that the pages fell in the correct order says Smith.
He says: “We are honoured to have the opportunity to support Ukrainian families entering the UK in this way. This project aims to provide young readers with many much loved books from their homeland so they can feel connected and hopefully find some comfort, while assisting with their education and development while they are away from home.”
The books will be distributed to Ukrainians in the UK via the embassy and UK government officials responsible for finding accommodation for the refugees.
Halstan has also been involved with the Bookmark charity which has gathered colouring pencils as well as books for the refugee children. It donated 1,000 books to this latest project.
