Christian Schools in COVID Times | Part 4: Dr Daniel Pampuch

6 August 2021

ACSI Global Issues

To put our situation into perspective, I have been in regular contact with out sister organisations around the world through ACSI. Many countries have been doing it extremely tough and below I share a few comments from leaders across the globe as I have checked on their welfare:

Daniel Neuhaus | Area Director, FRANCE

“Mandatory sanitary passports are now required to access public institutions, schools, shops and restaurants. 60% of citizens are vaccinated. However, a new Bill has been tabled in parliament to end home schooling. This will impact 62 000 students in the government’s attempt to promote its secular humanist approach”.

Agus Susanto | Country Director, INDONESIA

“80 000 new cases a day. 5.5% of the population vaccinated. Indonesia is trying to decide whether to make their own vaccines. Parents are struggling to pay fees as they can’t work. Many rely on daily cash-in-hand work to survive. We thought we were at end of the tunnel and now the second wave has hit”.

Grace Turyakira | Executive Director, UGANDA

“Due to increased cases of covid 19, Uganda is back into total lockdown until end of July tentatively. Schools, churches, arcades, and most trading centres remain closed. Vehicle transportation is only limited to essential staff and cargo. Only 2.4 percent of the population have received vaccination. Kindergarten, up to Grade 3 children have not been to school since March last year.  Very few schools, mainly in Kampala, teach online, not many of their parents can afford the fees. Government has devised other means of teaching for example via television, radio, and printed home study materials. These are only accessed by a very small fraction of the population”. 

Mark Taylor | Country Director, INDIA

“India experienced a very sharp climb and a very steep decline in our second wave which lasted for around 90 days. We are still not out of the woods with a third wave expected to start at any time. The two states that lead the second wave are now showing an increase in cases, but the country is preparing for what hopefully may not be a third wave. Vaccinations are progressing at a snail's pace for 1.4 billion people even though we are vaccinating 6 to 8 million people a day.  Our ACSI India office staff who had Covid are now well, although we lost hundreds of friends and pastors during these last two months”. 

 
Sean Moore | Regional Director, SOUTH AFRICA

“The Delta strand of COVID has caused greater devastation than both the 1st and 2nd waves put together. The country is experiencing exponential infections and the death rate is at an all-time high. The hospitals are full and people are struggling to find beds. The infections have been localized in two specific provinces but now is spreading to the rest of the country, so we do not see the end of this tunnel yet. The result of this 3rd wave has brought another series of lockdown and school closures, which will no doubt affect our schools financially just as they were starting to recover. We hope that schools will re-open on 26th July. The national government have speculated a loss of a full year for most children academically and estimate up to 800 000 school drop-outs over the past year. This pandemic will take generations to repair. We pray for God's intervention for these children. Whilst COVID has caused destruction, the political situation in South Africa is devastating. Our land is literally burning. Protestors have turned to destroying our economy. Food and fuel shortages are already being experienced across the land. People live in fear from both COVID and from the political turmoil.”

Mauro Fernando Meister | Country Director, BRAZIL

“In Brazil we are just seeing a small relief of COVID cases and deaths, vaccination progressing, but Delta seems to be present already around here. Many states are widening up school presence for our second semester (Aug-Dec) and we will see how it goes. Internally Brazil is struggling with politics and politicians’ interests above the nation's and the people's needs. Although the economy seems to be doing well (surprisingly) we end up suspecting that we just have another bubble that will eventually burst in our faces”. 

Will you join me in committing to pray and and uphold our sister organisations across the world?" 

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