The Flemish government will provide €250,000 ($294,000) to support Ukraine's cultural sector, Culture Minister Caroline Gennez announced on 23 December. The funding will be channelled through UNESCO to finance mobile libraries and literary translations.
"One of Vladimir Putin's explicit goals is to destroy Ukrainian identity and culture," Gennez said. The minister said the contribution aims to help "rebuild the cultural sector in Ukraine" and enable "local initiatives that strengthen the mental well-being and resilience of the Ukrainian people through art and culture."
The agreement was signed on Monday at UNESCO's Paris headquarters. The UN cultural organisation has developed an action plan for Ukrainian culture that will receive the Flemish funding.
The money will finance programmes using art and culture to support war veterans' mental health, according to the announcement. Mobile libraries will be deployed in areas where the conflict has disrupted access to books.
The action plan includes measures for the literary sector, with a focus on translations into Ukrainian. Ukrainian writers and translators are scheduled to participate in the Passa Porta Festival in Brussels in March 2025.
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