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In the midst of COVID-19, SolidarityNow launches a series of educational and entertainment podcasts and offers online courses
Athens, April 29, 2020
In the time of COVID-19, SolidarityNow is steadily continuing its operations on the side of the most vulnerable groups and creating new, alternative educational tools to provide lessons to both adult refugees and children.
The non-formal education offered by the organization with the support of UNICEF and IOM, at 14 open Accommodation Structures in Greece, has temporarily switched mode of operations to ensure the health and protection of the population living in camps and reduce the risks of spreading the virus.
SolidarityNow’s educational team had to overcome many challenges such as the fact that it was not possible for students to be physically present in the classroom. With the aim of being “as close” as possible to children and their parents, SolidarityNow created a series of educational and entertainment podcasts/recorded messages. The name of this new educational tool is: “SolidarityNow Rings a Bell!”.
“Even under these challenging circumstances of physical distancing, we wanted to get as close as it gets to children and their parents and support them and spend time together creatively,” explain Vasso Katsomaliari and Domniki Georgopoulou, Coordinators of the organization’s educational activities, and continue: “Through this creative way of teaching, as SolidarityNow’s educational team, we help children and parents living in refugee camps to adjust to a new reality. At the same time, we motivate them to continue their education, but also suggest interesting ways of spending creative time together. The success of distance-learning depends on many different factors, but most of all, on the continuation of the relationship between teachers and students”.
The specialized teachers’ team of the organization, having cultivated a constructive relationship with the children, designed an educational tool that meets the specific needs and preferences of this group.
So, the bell… rings and familiar voices – the voices of their teachers – convey to children educational and entertaining “messages” in various languages. Fairy tales, songs, games, current news as well as many other topics that are intended to creatively engage the children and their parents.
* The Child Friendly Support Hubs project is implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of UNICEF and IOM Greece and funded by the European Commission.
Αthanasia Papiggi, Student Group Coordinator STARTnow
A few months ago, none of us would believe someone saying that we would be forced to stay home for a long time. We would say that all this is a bad joke. But COVID-19 changed our lives and the bad joke became reality. After the first shock, we come to awareness and then we start dealing with the problem. The students – volunteers of SolidarityNow’s STARTnow program, although being isolated in their homes, have searched and found solutions to spend their time creatively.
It is worth noting that, SolidarityNow in collaboration with STAR UK implements a program named STARTnow. In particular, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, by participating in conversation clubs, come into contact with Greeks and learn Greek. Learning the Greek language through unconventional methods of education (discussion, interactive games, audiovisual media) can lead to faster and smoother integration of people into the Greek community. Due to COVID-19, and for precautionary reasons, scheduled meetings were canceled. However, the students, volunteers of the program, tried – even from their homes – to share with us their new daily life.
Maria, a volunteer, who studies Psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, tells us that because of the quarantine, she cleaned her whole house. In addition to cleaning, exercise and dance are two of the most favorite pastimes of many students. Two volunteers, Vicky, a student at the Pedagogical Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Glykeria, who is studying Psychology, confess that they attend online dance classes, as well as concerts. Universities may be closed, but lectures continue through various video platforms. Movies, books, documentaries, and TV are also some of our students’ favorite habits, as well as cooking. Apparently, quarantine boost our creativity in the kitchen too! Painting, decorating, board games, but also taking care pets or even gardening are some of our volunteers’ favorite activities.
Talking to them, we are amazed at how many things people can do when they are “locked” in their homes. There is a question on all our minds. Does quarantine and isolation give us eventually the opportunity to discover new aspects of ourselves?
We would like to thank our students-volunteers Maria, Anastasia, Christos, Angela, Vicky and Glykeria, Natalia, Maria, Elena and Christina and Zoe who described us how they are experiencing home quarantine.
* STAR UK is a national charity of 34,000 students welcoming refugees to the UK.
** STARTnow is a SolidarityNow project in cooperation with STAR UK. Its main aim is to bring university students and refugees together, to encourage and educate university students in order to offer real help to refugees as well as to promote equal opportunities for everyone, no matter what their origin, sex, mother tongue or colour is.
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