What if a simple storybook could bring comfort, preserve heritage and build a bridge to a new life for thousands of displaced Ukrainian children? That’s exactly what VATAHA aims to do by coordinating the ‘Tales of EUkraine’ project.
Tales of EUkraine aims to distribute 17,400 bilingual Ukrainian-Dutch children’s books across schools, libraries and community hubs in the Netherlands. Together with the Ukrainian Publishing House Old Lion (better known in Ukraine as Видавництво Старого Лева/ВСЛ), the project coordinated the production of several titles, including:
- Fogi (original title: Фоґі);
- The Story Told by Zhuka (Історія, яку розповіла Жука);
- A Ghost who Couldn’t Fall Asleep (Привид, який не міг заснути);
- My Secret Superpower (Потаємна суперсила);
- Yakiv and the Wet Evening (Яків і мокрий вечір)
This collaboration was born out of the urgent need to support Ukrainian refugees, particularly children who have fled their homes due to the ongoing war.
If you represent any kind of Ukrainian-affiliated organization in the Netherlands that is interested in receiving copies of these bilingual books, please fill out the form below (in Dutch):
Literary relief
For many, the journey to safety has meant leaving behind personal belongings—including books that are too heavy to carry across country borders. The initiative plans to distribute approximately 300,000 bilingual books across Europe, and has already been successfully implemented in Greece, with Belgium, France and Italy still to come.
The bilingual Ukrainian-Dutch books target readers aged 3 to 6 (and up to 8 in some cases). The goal is to distribute them through organizations rather than to private individuals, ensuring they reach a wider audience, including future generations of Ukrainian children.
By late December, just in time for Christmas, these books will provide displaced Ukrainian children with not just stories, but a little relief—a sense of belonging and hope.
So far, nine organizations have already expressed their interest in these bilingual books, with one organization alone requesting 1,000.
Navigating the unknown
Unfortunately, the process hasn’t been without its hurdles. One of the most significant challenges the initiative faces is the lack of clear data on Ukrainian children in the Netherlands. No up-to-date statistics exist to indicate how many Ukrainian children have arrived in the Netherlands, what their ages are or where they are based.
This information gap complicates efforts to ensure the books reach the children who need them most. Nevertheless, in several weeks since the project launched in 2024, the initiative received overwhelming interest from the local Ukrainian community, especially Ukrainian Saturday- and Sunday schools, with over 2,000 copies already spoken for in the Netherlands.
While connecting with local Dutch libraries and municipalities (gemeentes) has been more challenging, the delay is not due to a lack of interest but rather the slow and long-term nature of acquisition protocols in place.
A personal journey
Tales of EUkraine was scheduled to launch earlier this year in the Netherlands, but came to a tragic, abrupt halt with the untimely passing of one of the project coordinators Andriy Shmyhelskyy.
Andriy was also a founder of the Better Time Stories initiative in the Netherlands, which also makes bilingual audio books available, where family members can record themselves reading books for their children.
Olena Didkivska, a member of VATAHA who is coordinating the distribution and delivery of books all over the Netherlands, volunteered to step in when VATAHA was on the verge of giving up on the project due to logistical challenges and limited resources.
For Olena, this project marked her first volunteer experience within the Ukrainian community in the Netherlands. She is, however, no stranger to complex logistical issues. A supply chain manager in her day job, Olena readily brings her professional expertise to this project in order to arrange the distribution of books to community hubs all over the country.
Reach out to us to secure your bilingual books for Ukrainian children by filling out the form below (in Dutch)!
Tales of EUkraine is a collaboration between The Federation of European Publishers, the Ukrainian Book Institute, VATAHA and the Ukrainian House Rotterdam, funded by the EU Creative Europe program.
Above photo credits from Irina Danilevska and Vitalii Posuka. With additional reporting by Anni Schleicher.