The Zenzeleni Waldorf School, like all other schools in South Africa, has been closed since 18 March 2020. In the letter published below, Helen Stotko and Genevieve Langenhoven give an impressive description of the current situation and the challenges that the school community is currently facing. Apart from the concern that a Corona outbreak could quickly overwhelm the health system in South Africa, significant economic cuts can already be felt.
The school community of the Zenzeleni School is being hit particularly hard as most of the families live in the township and the parents do not have a secure income. Layoffs, rising food prices and the increasingly tense economic situation mean that many families are losing their income and are no longer able to pay the minimum fees for school attendance. It is quite possible that this will result in existential challenges for the school.
Support for the Zenzeleni Waldorf School, both through one-time donations or through educational sponsorships, is very welcome!
Letter about current situation
Dear friends of the Zenzeleni Waldorf School,
In this extraordinary situation we take a moment to express our gratitude for your continued support of the children of the Zenzeleni Waldorf School. We wish you all the best for the challenges that await you and your families - both in your private and professional lives. May we all have the courage and strength to face what is coming with inner peace.
We would like to inform you about our current situation. In South Africa the situation has not reached the extent that it has in other parts of the world and we are grateful that our government has taken responsible and proactive action. At the Zenzeleni Waldorf School we are resolutely implementing the regulations to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus/Coronavirus. Like all other educational institutions, we are testing how we can continue to teach the children and keep them motivated, inspired and positive.
All schools have been closed since Wednesday, 18 March. Public life has almost come to a standstill since the lockdown on Thursday, March 26. When our school had to close for the first time, it was supposed to close from March 18 to April 14. Two of these weeks were school holidays, so at that time we assumed that the children would have two weeks of home schooling, depending on their age and taking into account the fact that their parents were still working. Our focus was on supporting the families during this time rather than putting them under additional pressure. In the younger classes, our teachers told the children to play inside, draw pictures, read books, do math worksheets and keep a diary. The higher classes do the same, and also get a project work related to our life orientation lesson [funny word. can we find another one?] on hygiene and understanding the Corona virus. This project work also includes language exercises in isiXhosa and projects in other subjects, such as geography.
Since the lockdown has now been implemented, the schools are to reopen one week later than planned. Our teachers will take this time to work out a plan for the future, and they will be able to use the national curriculum as one of our cell phone providers offers free data on their network to access the national curriculum. In our community, parents would not normally have access to unlimited data, so we are very grateful to the mobile operator for doing so. We are still working on how we can move forward with our Waldorf curriculum should the lockout last longer than expected. At the moment there is also talk of shortening our mid-year holidays by one week to make up for this time.
The economic impact of the Covid 19 virus will be felt most by the families of our school community living in the townships. Most of our children come from families with a monthly income of only R 5000 (about € 250) or less. Without a secure income many of them will not be able to pay even the small school fees. Our deficit in raising funds will therefore be much larger than planned. We expect a deficit of 250,000 R (about 12,650 €) in our fees for the 2020 budget, especially since the economic effects of the closure are expected to continue for months after the closure is lifted.
An important question is how we can maintain what is essential for us as human beings - genuine human commitment - if we can only teach children by digital means. It is particularly important that the school children we look after have a way of staying in contact with their teachers if they find themselves in a difficult situation. One of our concerns, which is shared by the government, is the safety of women and children during the stressful period of curfew.
We continue to support our school community by providing up-to-date information and are looking for ways to continue our teaching in the upcoming months. We also collect donations for the most important things: food, medications, soap. We share stories and songs for children to help everyone understand the crisis situation and games/activities that can be done by the families in small rooms at home. We try to arrange for parents who are able to pay their share of the school fees so that the staff can continue to be paid even when school is closed and we encourage those who are able to to help others in need.
We will keep you informed about how the children are doing and what our plans are in case the schools cannot reopen in late April as expected. So far none of our families have been tested positive for the virus and we hope that they will stay healthy.
We wish you all the best in these difficult times. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.
Yours sincerely,
Helen Stotko Genevieve Langenhoven
Principal Sponsorship Coordinator