The teaching staff
The teaching Staff here at Ebenezer School have been working during pandemic timesto ensure that the chain of education does not break, and children are attached to the school. So, the teachers are coming to school every day and keep in contact with as many children as possible by interacting with them on the mobile and trying to access their problems and difficulties that they are facing.
Apart from this, the teaching staff also took on the task of personally visiting each student enrolled at the school as on before the last wave of covid-19. It wasindeed a tedious task because some of the homes of the children were very far away from the school campus but even this distance did not deter the determination of the teaching staff and they made it their motive that theywould visit each child no matter the distance. When the home visits were complete, a day was fixed, and all the teaching staff and the headmaster were seated in a classroom and each group presented their feedback from visiting families. All our beloved parents were interested and keen to continue sendingtheir child to Ebenezer School, supported by Glocal Aid.
From the month of September 2021 the Government has given us permission to open schools in a faced out manner keeping in mind strict Covid-19 Guidelines (2 feet distance between each child, hands properly washed / sanitized, wearing of masks on the face is mandatory, get the jab (vaccinated ), etc.) in the State of Uttar Pradesh. So, therefore we at Ebenezer have also started to re-open the doors of the school almost after 18 months of on and off with shutdown. And it is indeed a great pleasure to have the children back in the school and the empty classes getting filled with children again. The Teaching Staff have also made extra effort just to ensure that all our children who were attached to the Sponsorship Program return back to school. And for this they have again made a visit to the homes of those children who were not turning up in their classes even after the school was reopened for offline classes. Those who could not be visited personally were contacted on the phone and encouraged to send the children to the school so that they do not lag behind in the educational activities that have been restarted. We are still in the process of having children come back to school in a gradual manner and we are also having some new admissions also taking place.
School re-opening
So the month of September 2021 came as an energy booster and festive time for all of us here at Ebenezer School. So, with full throttle the staff began to prepare a "Grand Welcome" for the children when they returned to their respective classes. All the workers got down in the cleaning and tidying up of the classes for the welcoming of the children. From the 1st of September 2021 the school started getting children in the Junior section to attend classes in their respective classrooms. At first, for a few days the number of children coming was a bit few, but as the days passed and the confidence in the children and also in the parents increased, the numbers started to increase daily. It was such a pleasant sight to see the children coming to school, all dressed up and eager and enthusiastic to be apart (physically) of the school after such a long time. And it gave us all at Ebenezer School great joy and happiness to have our dear beloved children back to school after 18 months.
As most of the children enrolled at Ebenezer School are from the rural background (villagesand small towns) and having scant or no facility of good health infrastructure, the Management at Ebenezer School decided to get a proper health-checkup for all the children attending school. A medical social worker was hired by the school for two weeks to do a thorough health check-up of all the children and give necessary medical assistance on the spot if required.
Most of the children coming from the villages who were very little or not at all aware of proper health ethics were given some important health information in the morning on arrival at the school at the time of the morning assembly. And it was also arranged by the School Management that all the children were provided Free Masks to each student from Glocal Aid our Sponsors and also there has been kept a bottle of Sanitizer in each class so that each student before entering his / her respective class, should each day sanitize their hands once at the time of arrival at the school and also at the time when school is over and they leave for their homes. Even in the class they have been told tosit far from each other maintaining a safe distance. This was really somethingweird for the children as this had never been done before when they lastattended school. It took a few day to get into the routine at doing this, butgradually as the days passed it has become a habit with almost all the schoolchildren and not only this they have started telling their parents theimportance of cleanliness and the ways in which we can keep ourselves safe fromthe coronavirus. This fact came to light when some parents started to call theschool office and thank us for educating not only their children but also theparents overall regarding sanitation and cleanliness.
Tree plantation at Ebenezer School by the children
Asmentioned above about the reopening of the schools with the children now comingon a daily basis for educational activities, it was decided by the Headmasterthat we should have a small activity in which the children can participate andfeel more attached with the school as they all had been away from the schoolfor a long time. And as the monsoon still in process, it was thought that sinceour main sponsors Zinzino Charity, also being into the business ofhealthcare and promoting wellness and organic healthcare solutions, have thechildren plant trees which in turn will give them information how importanttrees and nature is to the environment and for human existence. Therefore, aday was decided when this activity was to be done and what was more importantwas that the children themselves brought small plants / trees to be planted inthe school campus from their homes. The children were told about our mainsponsor Zinzino and the marvelous job that they were doing in the field of healthcarepromoting good health and wellness and trying to bring happiness in the livesof as many people as possible with their products.
Thechildren were all excited on the big day and the headmaster had a lot oftrouble in selecting the children who were to help in this endeavor as so manyof the children brought plants / saplings from home that if everyone wasallowed to plant his / her sapling, then we would be left with no playgroundfor the children to play. So, after the selection was made by the headmaster (muchto the dismay and sorry for the ones who were not selected) all were asked togather in front of the school and were made to stand in front of the smallholes that were dug to plant the saplings. After a short briefing on howto get these saplings planted, the children were so excited that some who hadalso done some planting at their homes did not even wait for the teachers tohelp them out but went about doing their job in a responsible manner.
It hasalways been the aim of the Management at Ebenezer to ensure that not onlybookish knowledge is given to the children enrolled at the school, but evenmore importantly life's lessons teaching them moral and social values thatwould make them knowledgeable citizens of the country when they grow up.