Letters: Comfort through stories
Dear Editor,
thousands of children have arrived in our communities over the last few months, separated from their loved ones and belongings.
They may not be able to attend school straight away, so they need support with their education. Language barriers may also leave them feeling isolated. The Bookmark Reading Appeal is seeking to raise £1m to support Ukrainian children aged between five and nine who arrive in the UK.
We want to offer Ukrainian children currently living here a ‘Bookmark Box for Ukraine’, which includes high quality books in Ukrainian and English, a tablet pre-loaded with multilingual eBooks, literacy and language apps, together with a SIM card to stay in touch with family and friends, school stationery sets and sensory games and story-telling aides for therapeutic play.
The Bookmark Box will give them tools and resources to help feel secure and begin the process of healing.
We want to give them a warm welcome and help them to start a new chapter in their life, offering comfort through stories. The boxes are being distributed through local authorities, the Association of Ukrainians in GB, and charities providing local support. They’ve been designed with teachers and other literary experts, and we’ve also received support from publishers, authors, illustrators, technology, EdTech companies and other corporate partners.
We would like to invite your readers to support Bookmark’s Ukraine Appeal to help these children start their new chapter in the UK.
Sharon Pindar