Jake Epp Library opens Ukrainian book section

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This article was published 16/06/2024 (288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since the war in the Ukraine began in February 2022 an estimated 300 to 350 Ukrainians have arrived in the Steinbach area. Now, one woman’s dream has become reality as about 90 books in the Ukrainian language have become available at Jake Epp Library.

Daryna Malyukh, who has been a resident of Steinbach for about eight years, started the project last year. She said she began it as a way to have books for the many Ukrainians who came to the Steinbach area.

“I was wondering how we can do it so people can feel like home and go and reach out for books here in Steinbach. It was just my dream for a long time and war just pushed me more to start this project. It was not just for myself, but for the community who is coming here,” she said.

Assistant library director Aubrey Walker said the library was really excited that it can serve another part of the community. She said there is a collection of German books at the library as German is the second most spoken language in the catchment area followed by Tagalog.

“The Ukrainians were the ones that really gave us the means to add this collection,” she said, noting at this time the library doesn’t have any plans on adding other languages to its collection.

The books in the Ukrainian collection are mostly for children and teens but Malyukh hopes to one day expand into adult fiction. She said growth of the collection is dependent on monetary donations and book donations. It costs between $15 and $55 to buy a Ukrainian book in Canada and even more to import it from the Ukraine. Malyukh noted that book prices have surged after the Ukraine’s largest publisher was bombed a few weeks ago by the Russians.
“It’s insane. I want to really to extend this library, but without people’s help it will be difficult,” said Malyukh.

Malyukh is grateful to the people who helped her start the collection. She said she would like to thank Viktoriia Romaniuk, Yana Muntyan, Canadians who donated to the collection either finically or through books, Ukrainians who were helping the library catalogue the collection, and the ladies at Pansy Hall who donated books.

t want to say thank you to everyone who is involved. It’s not just me it’s all the team that was marching with me.”
To donate to the library visit www.uasm.ca. If making a monetary donation please note in the field that the money is for the library.