The arrival of covid-19 has only worsened this very dramatic: Erythrea is one of the poorest countries and health care fails to guarantee assistance and care. Also, lockdown is turning the health emergency into an even more terrible hunger emergency: for many children going to school means being able to receive the only meal of the day. The project aims to ensure and the possibility of returning to school in complete safety to 3100 children.
The school should open in September, but in order to be able to return to class every child must have a mask and the structures must have specific prevention measures. This is inevitable if we want to guarantee protection and avoid a dramatic massacre, but once again poverty risks denying the right to food and to education to all those children who cannot afford to buy masks. Also, with lockdown, many families fail to ensure at least a meal for their children.
We cannot find ourselves unprepared for the reopening of the schools and this is why, together with the Sisters Daughters of St. Anne, we are taking steps to ensure that all 3100 children attending our school complexes have the opportunity to return to class in complete safety. The local contact is also training teachers on the correct procedures and control measures to be adopted and is organizing meetings to raise awareness among parents about the health and proper hygiene of their children.
The consequence of the intervention is to guarantee the right to food and education: Thanks to the masks, children will be able to return to class and continue the school program, also for many of them the school means being able to receive breakfast or lunch, which is the only safe meal of the day.
