Clare to deliver indie publishers' Ukraine campaign supplies to Romanian border

Award-winning writer Horatio Clare is heading a team delivering supplies gathered through the #Packedwithhope campaign to children on the Romania-Ukraine border.

Supporters of the campaign, which was launched by indie publishers Little Toller and Bluemoose Books, have sourced 10,000 backpacks which will be filled with essentials. Copies of dual-language children’s titles written by Ukrainians are being printed, in partnership with an American tech giant. Toothbrush kits are being donated by British Airways.

Leaving on 16th April, Clare will be travelling by HGV and documenting the delivery to Romania while writing about the displacement people in central Europe are experiencing. The campaign is working with a Romanian NGO, Te Aud Romania (I Hear You Romania), to deliver the backpacks to 10,000 children at the border. 

Other items including hats, scarves, sketchpads, insulated water bottles are also being collected by Gracie Cooper, publisher at Little Toller, while filled pencil cases are being organised by Orenda publisher Karen Sullivan. Cards with messages of hope written by 10,000 UK schoolchildren, plus head torches, treats and other items, are beginning to arrive at the temporary warehouse in Poundbury, Dorset.

UK publishers have rallied to support the cause. Bloomsbury has donated 13,000 books, while Hachette, Pan Macmillan, Quarto, Thames and Hudson, and indies such as Firefly, Ragged Bear and Indigo Press have donated a large number of titles.

The #Packedwithhope campaign is also being supported by Book Aid International. Launched two weeks ago to raise £75,000, the campaign has hit 80% of its target in under three weeks.

Cooper said: "I am overwhelmed by all the support we have received. When my 10-year-old son wrote a short story on a napkin about daddy going to war and how he missed him as the war broke out I realised then and there that I had to do something. I had no idea how enormous the project would become. It’s humbling—even life-changing.

"It has been wonderful to see the book community come together and support #Packedwithhope giving hope and some small comfort to those children displaced by war in Ukraine. If our backpacks can raise just one small smile, well, wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?"

The campaign is one of a number organised by members of the trade in response to the war, including the BrightonDrawNotWar drive, originally set up by Brighton-based authors and illustrators, which is closing in on its £30,000 target.