Initiated by the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, it’s the third time that the national campaign “Christmas of Books” has taken place. The VU KHF community was invited to participate by the 3rd year students of Cultural Management, with encouragement coming from the Republic of Lithuania’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Belarus Evaldas Ignatavičius and the Embassy’s Second Secretary Eglė Railė after the last-year second-hand book campaign that the Faculty organised.
This year the students made a decision to turn the last-year second-hand book cam
paign into a purposeful VU KHF tradition and forward them to Lithuanian communities in Belarus thus enriching their libraries.
This idea relates to the project “Education Activities in Cultural Centres within the Framework of International Community Mobility Aspect” (2012-2014) carried out by Prof. Dr. Virginija Jurėnienė and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aistė Urbonienė supported by the Science Council of Lithuania. The Dean of the Faculty Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kęstutis Driaunys is glad to emphasise that the scientists, on their trips to the cultural centres in Rimdžiūnai, Pelesa etc., brought back not only the results of their research, but also the news on how our countrymen live on the border of Lithuania-Belarus, and what kind of help is most needed there. In the end of 2012, a group of 4th year students of Cultural Management initiated the first book campaign during which the books collected from students and staff were brought to the library in the Lithuanian Cultural Centre in Rimdžiūnai.
Having received positive feedback from not only Lithuanians in Belarus, but also the Republic of Lithuania’s Embassy in Belarus, this year the students initiated a campaign of solidarity under the title “Let’s share used books with Lithuanians in Belarus!” and encouraged Lithuanians to share the books that they had already read from their personal libraries with those who needed them more. The community of VU KHF were involved in a sharing period of two weeks which was organised by the 3rd year students of Cultural Management. Thanks to them, the Faculty became more colourful with posters and sacks for books.
On December 23, VU KHF representatives brought the collected books to the Office of the President. Prof. Dr. Virginija Jurėnienė and the 3rd year students of Cultural Management Julija Baltrušaitytė, Daiva Burinskytė, Marija Mochančiovaitė, Inga Sinkevičiūtė and Simona Radavičiūtė participated in the December 23 event dedicated to the campaign “Christmas of Books” where they, together with the Republic of Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė, forwarded the books to the pupils of Lithuanian schools in Belarus.
Photos taken by: R. Dačkus
Author of the article:
Ramunė Danilkevičiūtė
3rd year student of Cultural Management
Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities
Contacts:
Mob. +370 677 92055