In Vietnam, more than 8.7 million primary school children could not attend school due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it will take a long time to close the educational gaps from the lockdowns. Together with tesa, we are responding to this extreme situation and supporting disadvantaged children on their way to a better future.
The "Literacy Boost" program enables schools, parents, and communities to provide even better support for the development of literacy skills in children. The program aims to make reading instruction even more effective and to develop effective methods for promoting reading in school and out-of-school contexts.
Save the Children promotes the implementation of the comprehensive "Literacy Boost" approach in schools and at home by providing specialist training for teachers and learning materials for teaching staff, caregivers, and children, for example through self-produced learning videos. Thanks to support from tesa, these videos will be used in trainings for parents and parent groups in all locations participating in the Literacy Boost program.
The sustainability of the project is very important to us. Save the Children promotes the exchange of best practices in the implementation of Literacy Boost strategies in various learning initiatives at the school level and in the professional development for teachers, as well as in parent groups and child-led reading clubs, thereby increasing the effectiveness of our ongoing education projects in Hai Phong and across Vietnam.
India has made remarkable progress in the field of education over the last few decades: since 2009, school attendance for children aged 6-14 years has been compulsory and free of charge. Nevertheless, the Indian education system faces enormous challenges. Many children cannot go to school - especially children of migrant workers, street children and girls who are forced into marriage as minors. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, India is struggling with mass school closures, affecting 320 million school children. Child labor, child trafficking, child abuse, and poverty are increasing. We want to ensure that these children can continue to learn.
“Build Back Better”: Keeping Education Alive for Children after the Pandemic
As part of our partnership with tesa, Save the Children is active in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The state has the second highest population in India mainly made up of day laborers, agricultural workers, and migrants.
Save the Children has been supporting schools in the Haveli Taluka district for four years. This has led to a trusting cooperation with the district administration. Thanks to tesa's generous support, we are now able to reach girls and boys in 40 more schools and preschools affected by school closures and lockdowns. By expanding our work, we are able to provide additional support to nearly 10,000 people, including the school children themselves, their families, administrative staff in the schools, and public employees in the education sector.
Bal Rakshak: How Community Volunteers Support Local Children’s Learning
As part of the community outreach, Save the Children introduced the concept of ‘Bal Rakshak’, which translates to ‘Protector of Children’. Bal Rakshaks are volunteers from the community who reach out to the children and accompany them intensively in their learning. They receive a small renumeration for their work.
Even before the pandemic, disadvantaged children had little chance of receiving adequate nutrition and healthcare in Mexico. Every second child is exposed to domestic violence. Now, in the current situation, the well-being and education of more than 40 million children are at stake. Our mission helps 300,000 children in Mexico and provides a stable, positive learning environment for them. Through this, we protect children from domestic violence, provide psychosocial assistance and food packages. We provide technical equipment and creative learning and craft materials. Furthermore, we advise the Mexican Ministry of Education in order to ensure the safe operation of schools.
Our program: "Boosting my development: Strengthening distance learning" is implemented in community centers for early childhood development. In these centers, we support children of working parents who do not have access to private childcare and provide important early childhood education. Click here for a closer look at one of the community centers in Chimalhuacán, a suburban district of Mexico City.
Italy has been massively affected by the crisis since February 2020. Save the Children has been involved from day one, first with rapid emergency aid and now through a gradual transition to a new normal. Save the Children is committed to ensuring that children continue to learn and grow up in a self-determined manner during and after the crisis. Our initiative "Rewriting the Future" is aimed at 100,000 children in 30 Italian cities.
Among other things, we work closely with schools and teachers to rethink classrooms and further develop learning environments. We offer advanced training on digital education because digital learning will remain enormously relevant even after the crisis. We train volunteers to organize extracurricular activities to support especially disadvantaged children and help them close their learning gaps.
More than a fifth of all children and young people in Germany are at risk of poverty and therefore have demonstrably lower educational opportunities. The corona pandemic hits these disadvantaged children and young people particularly hard. Not only are their parents more frequently affected by corona-related unemployment, but they often belong to those occupational groups that receive little short-time work benefit. In addition, numerous essential support services were no longer available during the lockdown. They also have a hard time in the area of homeschooling. They often lack both the necessary technical equipment and sufficient space for undisturbed learning. As the pandemic season has made clear, we live in a world that is becoming increasingly digital. Without compensatory measures, progressive digitization will further increase educational inequality.
The increasing digitalization offers new opportunities for greater educational equality. Therefore, we strengthen digital education in schools located in socially disadvantaged communities: In projects like MakerSpace we create spaces for creative work and experimenting. In those spaces, children and their teachers learn how to produce videos with green screens, how to create headphone holders with 3D printers and how to ensure protect their data on the internet. At the same time, we develop digitally taught classes and train teachers in digital education to make school lessons in Germany fit for the digitized future.
More than 1.6 billion children worldwide have been affected by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reopening schools continues to be challenging and there is a risk that decades of educational progress for children will be reversed worldwide.
Despite the pandemic and its long-term consequences, together with tesa, we are responding to this exceptional situation to give children worldwide the chance for a better future.
Safe Back to School
tesa SE's continued support and participation in our global "Safe Back to School" initiative is therefore extremely important. With an additional donation of €250,000 euros, tesa's financial support for Save the Children has increased to a total of 1.7 million euros.
Together with partners like tesa, we can help 150 million children worldwide return to school safely. With this global campaign, Save the Children is working to bring children’s rights to education to the global forefront.
For example, we have initiated reading camps where children learn to read through play; and we facilitate radio-based lessons in countries like Uganda, where children often have no access to digital media. Working with local governments also helps anchor the child's right to education at the state level and bring about lasting change for children.
A STRONG PARTNER IN TIMES OF CRISIS
Supporting Ukrainian Children
Since the start of the war, more than 6.7 million people have fled their homes, around half of them children. With a donation of €200,000 euros, tesa is supporting our emergency response for the children and their families fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Save the Children, together with our partner organizations, has organized an enormous relief effort in a very short time, spanning Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania, and Germany. We are on the ground at border crossings, welcoming the refugees with emergency aid, food, water, and hygiene kits, as well as shelters and play areas for children. In Germany, we are also setting up child-friendly spaces for Ukrainian refugees and training volunteers in psychological first aid so that they can respond appropriately to the needs of the children.
COVID-19 EMERGENCY RESPONSE IN INDIA
In the Spring of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic shook India to the point that the healthcare system was on the verge of collapse and children were severely affected. Here too, tesa was an important partner in Save the Children’s relief efforts. Thanks to the additional €250,000 euros donated by tesa, we were able to reach more than 615,000 people with our emergency response in India! For example, we made access to healthcare services faster and easier for patients in rural areas and directly supported children through counselling and materials needed for learning continuity, such as hygiene and education products.
Education connects. Together everywhere.
Six projects, three continents, and so many children who can continue their educations: In 2020 tesa and Save the Children came together for a one-million-euro partnership under the motto "Education connects. Together everywhere."!
Our education initiatives spanned six countries in the Asia, Latin America and Europe: Vietnam, China, India, Mexico, Italy, and Germany.
Our goal from the start of our partnership with tesa has been and continues to be to strengthen societal solidarity by supporting communities and families. Together, we provide a protective umbrella for a growing generation.
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Save the Children fokussiert in China im Bildungsbereich seit vielen Jahren die Themen frühkindliche Erziehung und Grundschulbildung. Wir arbeiten eng mit Eltern und Sorgeberechtigten, Lehrkräften und Gemeinden zusammen, um Kinder in ihren Rechten zu stärken. Dabei stehen Kinder im Alter von 0–12 Jahren im Fokus. Im Rahmen von Bildung verbindet. Zusammen weltweit. werden wir mit der finanziellen Unterstützung von tesa unsere Bildungsarbeit für mehr als 100.000 Kinder im Alter von 10–12 Jahren intensivieren. Ziel ist es bisher vor allem, das Selbstbewusstsein dieser Kinder und ihrer Familien zu stärken, sozio-emotionale Entwicklung und Resilienz zu fördern.
