This meeting will definitely be remembered for a long time. The children were expecting a writer with a somewhat boring lecture that they had to listen to because their teachers said so. Instead, they saw a military man – strong, energetic and cheerful. Writer Serhiy Pantiuk was preparing to meet with kids. He brought an alphabet and children’s books, but he met with the not-at-all childish eyes of teenagers who have been living in war for three years.
Behind Sergiy’s courageous image, there is a sincere smile and interesting stories. And children are always children. Curious and sincere.
For an hour, the boys and girls just listened as if hypnotized. Serhiy spoke about his experience in the war and his writing career. He spoke honestly and frankly about life and death. Perhaps, it is a special talent to be able to convey deep meanings in simple, understandable words.
Jokes, stories about childhood, interest in the lives of children – boys and girls from Chuhuiv had no chance to remain indifferent and detached. They listened with equal enthusiasm to stories about destroyed enemy equipment and poems for kids about mushrooms. About the first fee in the third grade – 1 ruble 72 kopecks – 10 servings of ice cream! And about the first book published in Bulgaria when Serhiy was 27.
Among the books published by Sergei, children will find a book for their age – “There is no such thing as faster”, which will undoubtedly be special for them, because they learned about it from the author.
And most importantly, the children saw and felt that it is possible and necessary to live here and now, to be energetic, to develop, to make plans and to find something good around them even in the face of war.
The project “Children of War” is implemented by the charitable foundation “SOS Civil Defense Headquarters” thanks to a grant from the Children’s Resilience Fund: Providing Capacity Building and Funding to Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations in Ukraine. The program is implemented by @CrownAgentsinUA and @IntegrityAction
