Since February 2022, Estonia became a second home for many Ukrainians. To date, the Ukrainian community in Estonia is larger than ever before. Our mission is to enable access to reading in the native tongue for every Ukrainian in Estonia – not only in Tallinn – but in any Estonian town or island. Our vision is to become the number one Ukrainian library in the Baltics and Northern Europe.
Our story began in March 2022, when a group of moms and social activists decided to create a kid-friendly space where families with children could come together, read their favorite books and engage in creative activities. Several people gathered around this idea. They brought their own books to share with displaced families and began to organize workshops and masterclasses for them. This is how Spilno was founded. What started as a bookshelf of books at the Estonian National Library evolved into a safe space for families with kids to read, discuss, and learn new skills together. Today, our book collection has over 1000 books, but only a half of them are in Ukrainian.
Our goal is to raise that number. We want to support Ukrainian refugees by giving them a possibility to read in their native tongue, thus helping them formulate and communicate national identity, connect to native culture and support their traditions while abroad.
But we need your support. Every 10€ pledge will provide each Ukrainian in Estonia – both child and adult – a possibility to read a new Ukrainian book from our library.
