Lviv continues to create new inclusive cultural products. So, over the past year, despite the full-scale war, it was possible to print more than 20 editions for the blind with a total circulation of about 5,000 books. Braille books were given free of charge to libraries and boarding schools throughout Ukraine, as well as to blind children. This was told by Oksana Potymko, head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technologies of Lviv Polytechnic University.
“Despite the full-scale war, last year we set a book record – about 5,000 books per year against 1,000-1,500 books in previous years. Fate smiled on us, and in December 2022 we won the first and only project in 2022 from the Abilis Foundation, Finland. The budget of the project is UAH 181,000, with these funds we have to print and publish three very good books about Christmas.
The first is “White Christmas”. These are works of classics of world literature, published in two volumes in Braille. Audio was made by Yaroslav Nudyk, using a lot of special effects.
The second is “Mystery of Christmas”, compiled by Solomiya Savka. The book contains 12 Christmas recipes, 12 wonderful poems by Oleksandr Oles, Hrytsk Chubai, Ivan Malkovich, Bohdan Antonych, and others – voiced by actors from Lviv theaters. And another 12 carols, each of which was performed by a different blind child from all corners of Ukraine – from Novomoskovsk to Mukachevo.
The third book is A Christmas Story by Lucy Mott Montgomery. This edition is in three volumes in Braille, the audiobook is made in the roles of blind children from different cities of Ukraine and famous Lviv actors and journalists.
The circulation of each edition is 60 copies. Each book has luxurious color tactile drawings that you can “see” by touching with your fingers. They were made for us by Elya Bosovych from the “People and Dolls” theater. Thematic pictures: King Belshazzar in the desert with a caravan of camels in the setting sun, Christmas night above the village with a Christmas star, a scene from the nativity scene, where the newborn Jesus is in a manger, surrounded by a donkey and a lamb, etc. The drawings are gorgeous!”, – said Oksana Potymko, head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technologies of the Lviv Polytechnic National University.
This project from the Abilis Foundation was won and implemented by the Lviv regional branch of the NGO “Ukrainian Union of People with Disabilities – USI”, and the Resource Center of the NU “Lviv Polytechnic” and many Lviv actors, musicians, and journalists are helping: Mykola Bereza, Lesya Shkap’yak, Roman Havrysh, Oleksandr Norchuk, Lesya Bonkovska, Yaroslav Nudyk, Lyubov Sorokina, Volodymyr Nizhalovskyi, Maryana Bovtsailo and others, as well as blind and sighted children from Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Zakarpattia, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Vinnytsia and other regions of Ukraine: Daria Shvets, Lisa Moskalenko, Sofia Semyon, Ivan Odeychuk, Veronika Peretyazhko, Vera Semkiv, and others.
The first of three books “White Christmas” in two volumes is ready, and on the eve of Christmas Eve, the project team will send the entire circulation of 60 copies (that is, 120 books) to blind children in different regions of Ukraine – both to special schools and directly to blind children. The rest of the books have already been printed and voiced, and are now in the final stage of finishing.
“All three books selected for printing and voicing are exquisite literature that carries a deep meaning and contains prose and poetry that blind children should know, as they are incredibly beautiful works and poetry of Ukrainian and world classics.
This project gave the whole team a wonderful pre-Christmas mood and the expected meeting with a miracle. We are certain that he will give a lot of emotions to blind children who will read and listen to books created for them by the people of Lviv,” added Oksana Potymko.
Contact person for the mass media – Oksana Potimko, head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technologies of Lviv Polytechnic University, tel. 0972440684, 0500245464.