Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi underscores her firm belief that the world of literature can open the gates of peace.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Sharjah World Book Capital Office and Wroclaw Literature House, organising entity of UNESCO’s Wroclaw City of Literature project, announced the launch of a fund to support Ukraine’s writers with the aim of providing financial support to the writers, translators and those working in the publishing sector who lost their jobs in Ukraine. Called ‘Stand with Ukrainian Writers Fund,’ the fund was launched in response to the situation in Ukraine.

The Wroclaw Literature House invited the cities of literature and world book capitals and received instant response and support from the Sharjah World Book Capital Office, under which the fund was established. The fund is to provide grants to the Ukrainian writers, translators and publishers, who lost their means of subsistence, and help them get scholarships or get the rights of their works of art.

Expressing her happiness at the establishment of the fund, Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, President of International Publishers Association and Head of Advisory Committee of Sharjah World Book Capital, stressed the necessity of writing for overcoming the challenges and hard conditions and the need for books to extend bridges of communication and dialogue, reduce differences and maintain security.

She underscored her firm belief that the world of literature can open the gates of peace, noting that the humanitarian duty calls on the world to exert concerted efforts to support this noble initiative.

Meanwhile, Erik Grin, Director of Wroclaw Literature House, said: “We urge the international literary community to support this fund as all donations will be used to directly support authors, illustrators and translators, while the fund will finance translation samples of Ukrainian literature into other languages.”

Wroclaw Literature House will closely co-operate with other Polish institutions and organisations including the Literary Union Association and the Polish Literary Translators Association. The house will also co-operate with Ukrainian UNESCO Cities of Literature and the Ukrainian Book Institute to recognise the needs of Ukrainian writers.