Hello and good morning. How are you doing today? Hey, good morning,
I am very well. How about yourself? Absolutely fantastic And it's such
a blessing to share conversation with you because you are changing people's lives, not
just today, but I have a feeling this is going to be a generational
thing that's going to happen, that's going to go long into the years,
well beyond us. That is what we're trying to achieve, lasting impact.
So I'm glad you think that that's the case as well, because it's what
we're trying to achieve. One of the things that we need to do right
off the start is what there's got to be a website for viewers and listeners
to go to so they could they can help you out, they can they
can participate with with everything that's taking place, and I don't want to forget
to get that email address or website. So the website is a ww rescue
dot org slash books for Ukraine. That's where people can learn more about this
project and learn more about our work and also engage with our work. There's
so much destruction, disruption, but there's also calm and people can find that
through reading. Can't they they can, and it is true that there is
so much destruction. Two years into this conflict, after the full scale invasion
of Russia, we now see more than fourteen million people in need of humanitarian
assistance. There are three million children that are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Ten million Ukrainians had to flee their homes because of the violence and are now
living in neighboring countries. The Ukrainian economy is in disarray and there isn't really
enough funding for humanitarian assistance. So the world is really grim for Ukrainians,
and children often bear the brunz of these types of situations. So to have
a project that helps children deal with the circumstances, takes them out of that
world for a little while, has been really important for us. You know,
when you talk about humanitarianism, one of the things we always think of
the food and the clothing in the water, but we don't ever think about
the books. You've got to be able to have a place where they can
learn communication and where they can learn lessons in life. That is so true.
I mean, forty percent of the schools in Ukraine are destroyed. One
out of two Ukrainian school children is not going to school right now, and
that is the same for the one point three million children that lives outside of
the Ukraine, and so their access to education, their access to books,
their access to books in their own language, has been so limited, and
that's where this project really makes a difference. Does this open the door for
authors around the world to participate, Well, we clearly hope to generate an
impact through this project, and we hope to make more people Enterjestic for projects
like this. And if you see how children in London reacted to the to
the distribution of books and how they immediately engage with them, you know,
if I imagine myself to be a writer, I would want to be associated
with a project like like absolutely, yeah, yeah, because I am an
author and I'm going why am I not participating with this? Well, that
is a good question, then we should talk. I wish you could see
our neighborhood for two years, sir. We have flags in support of Ukraine,
and there's so many reasons why one of them there, Joe Lindsley is
still over in Ukraine right now as a journalist and refuses to come back.
He's over there to help them, the people of Ukraine and then we have
Ukrainian families here and we are all united, and so when I to be
blessed with this opportunity to talk with you, I can't wait to sit down
and share it with them. Yeah, no, I think that is that's
a wonderful id. There are at the moment more than one hundred and seventy
six thousand Ukrainians in the United States that came through the United for Ukraine program
that are being hosted by sponsors and by the families that you were just describing,
And we imagine that a lot of these families would also really benefit from
you know, projects like this, would benefit from more volunteering support, really
from any effort that can help them integrate in their in their new environment.
The IRC is twenty nine offices in the United States. We work a lot
with volunteers and with local communities to welcome Ukrainians and other people, uh that
have come here fleeing fleeing violence. So I think you made a very important
point there. You speak of the book distribution, does that also include apps
where the children and adults can download books. Because I'm one of those kindle
people. I like it on you know, in a book format, but
I also like it on the candle. Yeah, there is definitely electronic distribution
of the book is available as well. We actually have a partner, the
Endless OS Foundation, that helps us do just that. Because some people read
books, other people read books in apps and through digital means, and we
really wanted to make sure that we could reach people, you know, wherever
they are in their reading trajectory. And of course the digital distribution also has
expands the scope of a project like that in ways that a physical distribution,
uh, you know could not. What have you learned from this because you
have to be a student, because I've once again I've never heard of anything
like this in history. You are the student and you're teaching the rest of
us. So what I've learned from the children, right, is that,
say, the joy of reading, being able to be connected to books is
so important. It's a simple, humane act, but it is so powerful.
But what I've also learned is that, say, supporting children, Ukrainian
children and refugees requires partnerships like the one that we now have with HarperCollins,
with the Creative Art Agencies and with the Endless os Foundation. No one could
have done this just by themselves. It really required these organizations to come together
in the shared objective of supportingchildren in conflicts, and so yeah, there are
a lot of learnings for us in this project as well. Wow, please
come back to this show anytime in the future. This platform belongs to you
and we can reach the world through it. Thank you so much. It
was a pleasure speaking to you. You'd be brilliant today. Okay, thank you.