Sending LOVE and HOPE to Ukraine

What is a war, and what does it mean? As the conflict in Ukraine continues, many children are probably wondering about this question. This is one of the most difficult conversations for parents and educators to address. It’s normal not to know how to answer this question in a way that children can understand.

 

We feel fortunate to help Dr. Shu-Chen Jenny Yen illustrate and translate her Social Story titled "After a War" into Chinese. The purpose of this book is to explain the war between Russia and Ukraine to children around the world, including Ukrainian children, with the goal of instilling hope in the children's minds. This book along with many social stories Dr. Yen created can be found at The Social Story Center at https://socialstorycenter.com/. All the books and lesson plans are free to use for parents and educators.

 

Dr. Yen would like to send a message to the Ukrainian children to encourage them to remain strong and remain hopeful. She wants these children to know that there are many people throughout the world who support them. In the meantime, she would like to foster empathy among families throughout the world for the people of Ukraine.

 

The purpose of the fundraiser is to raise money to print 200 copies of the social story and ship the books to the city of Lviv, where we have established connections with two professors, Olesya Saban and Oksana Taran, who work for the Lviv Polytechnic National University. When the war started, Olesya and her son were forced to leave Ukraine and seek shelter in Europe. Olesya believes that this project is not only informative and educational but also profoundly insightful. Most importantly, it makes it possible to support little Ukrainians and their mothers.

 

Orest Saban, 17 years old, was born and brought up in the city of Lviv, in the west of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, he was forced to leave his home and stay in another country for several months. He helped translate this book into Ukrainian in a timely manner and shared his thoughts in this YouTube Video.

 

Christmas is around the corner, and we hope you will join us in sending books to comfort the young children who still live in the city of Lviv, Ukraine.

 

Please help us spread “Peace” to Ukraine!

 

-Claire Wu and Carina Wu