By Elisabeth Viinalass | Fundraising Officer
Marhaba from Insan school,
The past year has been rather exceptional, very different from any previous years. The school year started off normally and children were so happy to come back to us. However, on 17th October 2019 thawra (revolution) started and because there were violent clashes taking place on the streets between the protesters and the authorities, children were not allowed to come to school for weeks. At times, when the situation calmed down a bit we were able to run the classes but sadly they were still on and off all the time.
In March Covid-19 started to gain ground globally and Lebanon was not spared from the pandemic either. The safety measures adapted by the state have been quite strict which is obviously good for stopping the spread of the pandemic. Yet, it will certainly leave gaps in students’ education. If in Europe and U.S. and also in the Lebanese private schools a lot of schoolwork was moved online during the pandemic (even though it has been difficult also there), it was much more difficult for us to achieve. Not all our students have access to a computer, a smartphone or internet. However, we have done our best to adapt our educational activities to the current situation. As there is still a considerable amount of students who can access online materials, we have started with some online learning activities, including sharing information through WhatsApp.
At the same time, we have also continued to have some classes when there is no lockdown in place. This has been crucial to all students but especially for the ones without access to online learning. All the precautionary measures have been taken in the classes. The number of students has been decreased by almost a half in each class, everyone is wearing a face mask, hand sanitizer is provided and body temperature is taken before entering the classroom.
We have also managed to start with cooking classes and the first group has even graduated by now. Furthermore, school renovation is ongoing and we are in the process of equipping our second kitchen lab.
We wish everybody to stay strong and safe and hopefully already in the next report we can bring you more good news about the activities going back to normal.
Thank you for supporting us and the vulnerable communities in Lebanon.
Best regards,
The INSAN team
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