The international charity organization Parimatch Foundation presents the first collection of children's audio fairy tales in Ukrainian. The project aims to support Ukrainian children affected by Russian aggression. The collection will be interesting not only for children but also for parents to dive into the «Secret stories of small and big victories» together.
The idea of the project came up during the period of military escalation in Ukraine, and it united like-minded people to become the partners of the project, namely the publishing house «Knygolav», the first Ukrainian audio bookstore ABUK and the international media service MEGOGO. The author of the fairy tales is Tanya Stus, a Ukrainian children’s writer, and the founder of the BaraBooka children’s reading support project. Together with psychologist Svitlana Royz, all stories were carefully checked for non-traumatic effects on children’s mentality. Marta Koshulinska became the illustrator of the project. The final chord in such a star team was the Ukrainian singer Alyosha, who became the voice of the project.
The «Secret stories of small and big victories» collection consists of 10 fairy tales with a therapeutic effect for adults with children of preschool and elementary school age. Fairy tales will become an everyday tool for helping children with stress, anxiety, or in crises caused by war. The audio format is designed for everyone to use the product regardless of location and country of residence.
You can listen to the audiobook for free on the ABUK platform, the Audio section of the MEGOGO mobile application for iOS and Android, as well as with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay audio systems when driving.
Ukrainian singer Alyosha who became the voice of the project experienced every emotion and situation together with her characters. A soothing and melodious tone of voice envelops listeners and promotes a sense of security.
– Fairy tales are always exciting stories with happy endings. When we are together, we always hope for a happy ending in any story! I believe that these fairy tales will help us unite in common desires and experiences even more strongly, because love, which makes us joyful and sincere, has the most powerful force in the world, and it wins! Sincere thanks to everyone who worked on making this good project – Ukrainian singer Alyosha (Olena Topolya) told.
Each of the 10 stories delicately and carefully reveals and explains important or even disturbing and painful themes about the war. The reality here is closely intertwined with a fairy tale. Therefore, alongside the completely everyday situations that happen to the main characters – Ulyana, Sviatyk, and Lev – hidden, secret stories come to life here, which will be revealed to those who know how to listen with their hearts. A watch, a mother’s backpack, a piggy bank, a flower, a wreckage of a rocket, a wounded house, a siren, a car, pain-healing, and even darkness – they are all ready to share their stories that will help pass difficult trials and show the way to small and big victories.
– The fairytale therapy is an opportunity to touch on difficult themes and experiences, to make them clear, and to heal wounds being in a safe place. You can stop the fairy tale at any moment to distance yourself from what is now inappropriate or too tough. All the stories, themes, and illustrations are carefully constructed so that listening and reading the book is safe and therapeutic. But it is important for parents to listen to the proem as well, says Svitlana Roiz, who supervised the project.
Initiated and supervised by the International Charitable Organization Parimatch Foundation, the collection of children’s fairy-tale therapy stories was implemented as a part of the Foundation’s Mental Health program – a program of psychological support for Ukrainian children affected by Russian aggression.
