Enabling children to receive an education is one of our noblest tasks. There are many reasons why even today, millions of children are not able to go to school, and thus remain permanently excluded from social life. Of course, children have rights, but they are not respected everywhere. We work to ensure, practically, that especially disadvantaged children get their right to education.

Escola Waldorf a Oliveira was founded 15 years ago and in the course of its development, it has had to spread over three different locations near Lagos. Now it has finally been possible to acquire a plot of land in the neighbourhood of the kindergarten, where the school's nine classes have space together.

The Tashi Waldorf School was able to regain some reliability and regularity last year after several crises, some of which were caused by the pandemic. The small school in Kathmandu is currently attended by 64 children in two kindergarten groups and grades 1-3. Teacher Dil Maya Adhikari reports on the challenges and successes of 2022 in her annual report.

From April 10 to 15, the World Teachers' Conference took place at the Goetheanum. 1,000 teachers from over 60 countries met for five days in Dornach, Switzerland. Under the motto "Affirming - Nurturing - Trusting, an Education for Today and Tomorrow," lectures discussed important aspects of teaching design. In discussion groups and workshops we were able to exchange personal experiences and ideas. The Friends of Waldorf Education were present with an information booth. The amount of people interested was great. Some teachers knew us because their schools are supported by the Friends with donations. Many schools are places of service for our international voluntary services or would like to be. There was also a lot of interest in emergency education and Fiona Bay's workshop was well attended. The World Teachers' Conference was a wonderful experience and a successful week for all Friends of Waldorf Education departments.

Six years ago, as part of their voluntary service, Elisabeth Rybak and Paula Kiefer visited the village of Ñamandu, where there is already a school for the children of the indigenous Mbaya-Guaraní culture. Although the younger children come to school together with their older siblings, the state does not finance a kindergarten. Based on this observation, the two volunteers founded a kindergarten there without further ado. They received support from other Argentinian Waldorf kindergartens and from Germany. The Friends of Waldorf Education were also able to help financially in setting up the kindergarten. By extending their service, they were on site for a total of two years. In the meantime, they put the project in the hands of other volunteers. They were also able to recruit an educator to run their kindergarten in the Mbya Comunidad Ñamandu. All together they achieved a lot: The kindergarten became a model for other initiatives in the surrounding area that work on the basis of…

On Saturday, 22nd of October 2022, our WOW-Day event took place. It was awaited by the entire Waldorf community after a two-year break due to the pandemic.

Prices are currently rising in almost every country around the world, and almost every aspect of life is affected. Food is becoming more expensive, as well as energy and heating costs. Naturally, this also affects Waldorf schools, Waldorf kindergartens and educational and social therapy institutions worldwide. As the cost of living is rising everywhere, many parents are unable to pay higher school fees. This becomes a particular problem in countries that are already suffering from economic problems. With this appeal for donations, we would like to ask you for your support for these schools.

Nanyuki is a small town at the foot of Mount Kenya, home to Mt. Kenya Waldorf School. What started as a small kindergarten in 2018 has since developed into a Waldorf school a little more every year. In constructing of the classrooms, the school community decided to use the resources of the immediate environment by building in an affordable and environmentally friendly way.  

Donating is more than a bank transfer. You know this as a donor, because you have already given a lot of thought to where your donation will be most effective. You have decided to entrust us with your donation so that we can forward it to a school or therapeutic education institution of your choice, or for a specific purpose. For us, too, your donation is much more than a bank transfer, because it is important to us that exactly what you wanted to support with your donation happens. This also requires more than just another transfer to a Waldorf school, a Waldorf kindergarten, or a therapeutic education, or social therapy facility. A short presentation of our work in our office in Berlin follows in order to give you a little insight.

September marks the start of the new school year in Ukraine, where attacks by the Russian army have lasted for over six months. During the summer holidays, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education issued a decree stating that schools in Ukraine may only start operating if they have enough shelters where students and all staff can take cover in case of direct fire. The concern is quite justified. Evaluations by the Ukrainian authorities show that 2,300 of the total 17,000 schools in Ukraine have already been damaged by the belligerent attacks. The need to provide shelters poses particular challenges for all schools in Ukraine - but especially for Waldorf schools, only a small proportion of which receive any state support at all. Already two Waldorf schools in Ukraine have asked us for financial support to build a shelter: The small school in Krivij Rih and the Stupeni Waldorf School in Odessa. The latter reports on the construction work: "We have started building the air-raid shelter in…