Ranchi, July 9th, 2020
As India just overtook Russia to become the world’s third-worst affected country by the pandemic, and as Jharkhand extended lockdown following a surge of new cases in the state, RMI’s local NGOs partners are mobilized to maintain children’s engagement in education activities.
Several activities were organized in that aim:
Rapid survey with children…
… and with mothers
A dedicated focus was put on marginalized children who usually have limited access to necessary equipment and internet services, making it difficult to join digital classes. To overcome this challenge and to ensure their continuous engagement in education activities, more than 100 different types of worksheets covering various subjects were designed by a team of experts on education and were distributed to more than 2,000 children by the project team at ground.
A mechanism was developed to evaluate children’s performance and to share individual feedback while ensuring they enjoy the learning activities and remain connected.
This bridging mechanism was found very effective and efficient to ensure children remain engaged with education and do not feel excluded in comparison to other children having access to digital platform to continue their education activities.
A Mother is supporting her children in filling the distributed worksheets
Indian Space Research Organization organized an online competition for children
In parallel, handwash demonstrations are still carried out during Bal Manch (children’s forums).
Handwash demonstrations carried out during Bal Manch
As of July 2020, and thanks to the astounding work done by RMI’s partners, we have been able to maintain our objectives while adapting the way of delivering support and activities, under Education component as well as under global Community Empowerment Program.
As RMI continues to support and scale up these initiatives, a special focus is put on ensuring that everyone involved follows the health and safety protocols issued by the government and leading health experts to protect themselves and others against the virus.
Mica-dependent communities remain in a difficult situation, since industrial activities are disrupted at large. RMI will continue to monitor the situation in Bihar and Jharkhand. The significant impact COVID-19 will have on people’s lives remains worrying, especially with regard to local communities around the world who depend on mineral collection like the mica communities in India. RMI remains steadfast in its commitment to help vulnerable communities access essential goods and support as long as COVID-19 crisis lasts.
