The editor-in-chief of one of Ukraine's largest publishers is asking for funds to help send books to refugee children in surrounding countries to give them "a little piece of home" during a traumatic time.
Marjana Savka is hard at work at Old Lion Publishing in Lviv, leading a fundraising effort as Russian missiles strike the city. The donations the publishing house receives will pay to send books to refugees in surrounding countries, like the 500 children now living in Poland who have already received books.
She shared with NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff on TODAY Thursday that she and her colleagues have started collecting humanitarian aid to send to hard-hit areas in Ukraine like Kharkiv, as well as surrounding countries where millions of Ukrainians have fled.
Old Lion is accepting donations online that will help pay for books to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, and elsewhere. The company has also made 30 ebooks available for Ukrainians abroad for free, which have been downloaded more than 40,000 times.
More than four million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion last month, and more than 2.5 million of them are children in urgent need of "education, safety and support," according to the United Nations.
A particularly poignant book that Savka would like the refugee children to have is called "How War Changed Rondo," which was originally published in 2014 when Russia initially invaded Ukraine. The book details how "the war touched everyone."
"It’s maybe the most understandable message," Savka told Soboroff. "War touched everyone."
The book is about children living in a fictional place called Rondo that is at war.
"They tried together to make a light," Savka said.
Soboroff and Savka then read the book's final passage together out loud. Savka hopes real life can one day mirror the conclusion of the book.
"The whole town sang until every black flower had disappeared and the darkness had dissolved completely. Victory!"