“SolidarityNow Rings a Bell!” is the New Educational Program that Invites Students to a Different Classroom!


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.

  • You can listen to the podcasts at this link:

https://anchor.fm/solidaritynowringsabell?fbclid=IwAR0M-1InOCXIHPrBAWEqoQ4M0RbdiCAjsv979qh655UIYWTNgJLnaHw4D0Y

 

* The Child Friendly Support Hubs project is implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of UNICEF and IOM Greece and funded by the European Commission.