Monday March 23rd was educate.‘s third birthday. This exciting day came at a time full of challenges.
With everything going on surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, there are shifts taking place all across our community. In Honduras, schools and universities have closed down, and in Amsterdam our teams have switched to virtual meetings. In the midst of it all, it has been encouraging to see the positivity and support that our community has shown one another these past days and weeks, even across countries and continents. However, as you can imagine, things have not been easy.
We wanted to let you know how we have been adapting and making changes in light of the current situation, and how you can continue to be a part of our work. In times like this, community becomes more important than ever, and we need your support.
Prioritising Health and Safety
In Honduras, schools have been shut down for at least the coming two weeks and the country has closed its borders. Universities are also closed. All of our scholarship students are continuing their semester online, and we are providing as much support as we can where necessary to ensure that they are able to complete their semester.
Given recommendations by the Dutch government and the World Health Organisation, our Amsterdam team has also decided to call off all upcoming fundraising and other events until June. Health and safety comes first!
Two students from Las Lagunas doing their schoolwork at home
Making Resources Available
While all Honduras’ schools have closed, we are doing everything we can to support the teachers, families and students in the communities where we work so that even though there is no school, learning can continue at home – with or without access to internet. Education is a human right, and this should not change in times of crisis.
Earlier this week, we published a blog post of free Spanish-language learning resources to share with teachers, families and students across Honduras. We hope that by sharing these resources, as many people as possible can continue their learning from home.
Emergency Crowdfunding Campaign
We had big fundraising goals for these months, all of which have been cancelled or put on hold. Meanwhile, many of our students and team members in Honduras are facing a situation that is about a lot more than simply adapting to remote work and study: families who earn their living on a day to day basis have lost their entire household incomes.
In light of this situation, we are asking for your support. We hope that you will join us in making sure that everyone in our community is able to get through this immensely difficult and unpredictable time. We don’t want anyone to feel obliged to contribute, especially if already under financial strain from the impacts of the virus, but if you are in a position to do so, we would hugely appreciate your support.
Please give what you can, if you can, and share the campaign with your friends, family and network so that we can continue to support our students and community through this time of crisis and beyond.
Click here to make a contribution: https://chuffed.org/project/mud-masters-challenge-for-youth-empowerment-in-honduras
Online events coming soon
In the midst of all this, our events team are pulling out all the stops to see how we can take some of our events online! Whether for fundraising or simply to give our community ways to remain connected during this time, we have lots of ideas up our sleeves.
Our planned Grants Research Night on April 5th will also be going virtual, and we would love for you to join us. If you have a little extra time on your hands, consider getting involved in learning from our grants team leaders and spending some time researching new funding opportunities for educate.
If you have any ideas about other events we could run during this time, or if you would like to help out in this area (especially if you’re a digital promotion / marketing whizz!), drop our events team a message at events@educate-ngo.com.
As always, thank you for being a part of this community. While the past few weeks have been difficult and stressful for many, and the coming weeks are likely to remain so, in the midst of it all we have also seen an outpouring of support and solidarity.
Community matters, now more than ever, and we hope that you will continue to support us in this time.
educate. 