Two years ago, the first Waldorf kindergarten was opened in the Georgian town of Batumi. In a letter to the Friends of Waldorf Education, the project team reports on the initial phase, beginning in a rented flat, the plans to build a school and the difficult time during the Corona crisis.

In autumn each year, pupils raise funds for Waldorf schools, Waldorf kindergartens and therapeutic education institutions around the world as part of our WOW-Day campaign. With our WOW-Day projects we introduce you to institutions that urgently need these donations. This time we take you to Myanmar, to the Lotus Garden International School in Pyin Oo Lwin.

All over the world, for much of this year, people's everyday lives have been impacted by the effects of the Corona pandemic. For many Waldorf Schools, Waldorf Kindergartens and therapeutic education institutions in our worldwide movement the adverse effects are threatening their very existence. Our appeal for donations has mitigated the consequences of the Corona crisis, and our Joint action: Corona Aid has already been able to help in many places. Where your donations have already had a positive impact and why help is still urgently needed, we report in "Waldorf Worldwide".

As part of WOW-Day last year, we asked all participating projects to send us one of their favourite fairy tales. Since January we have been publishing one of these fairy tales every month. Now we have arrived at the penultimate fairy tale of the year. A fairy tale about poverty, wealth, arrogance, mysterious trees and a sea goddess. The story comes from the Mbagathi Waldorf School in Nairobi, Kenya.

We have reached the halfway point of the action period for WOW-Day (29.09.-29.11.2020). So far, 39 institutions from several countries have registered for WOW-Day. 14 of them have already carried out their creative activities and collected donations of €4,784. A heartfelt thank you for this! We also know that it is difficult to carry out activities under the current conditions. Many of the usual activities are no longer possible for this year's WOW-Day, due to social distancing and hygiene rules. Bazaars, school festivals and performances have had to be cancelled. In addition, there is the second phase of the lockdown, which threatens to adversely affect the second half of the WOW action period. However, it would be fatal to cancel WOW-Day as well! The Corona pandemic is hitting therapeutic education institutions, Waldorf kindergartens and schools worldwide particularly hard, which is why they need the support and commitment of the network more urgently than ever. Ideas for creative…

In the small town of Hawzien, in the north of Ethiopia, there has been a Waldorf Kindergarten since 2006 and a partner school since September 2014. The parents can only pay symbolic amounts to the school and kindergarten. School founder Atsbaha Gebre-Selassie and his colleagues are almost completely dependent on donations. In his latest report, which he wrote for us, he describes the current situation in which the school community have had to deal with many challenges at this time.

The two Waldorf Schools and Waldorf Kindergartens in Slovakia have asked us for support in a joint application. None of them receive any state subsidies, and because of the increase in unemployment among the children's parents, many contributions to the kindergartens and schools are not being paid. From funds raised in our appeal "Reducing the consequences of the Corona crisis" we were able to provide a total of more than €17,000 for these institutions. One of the two Waldorf Schools is the school in Bratislava, which is currently under construction. In a letter to the Friends they describe how much the support is helping.

In Armenia, as elsewhere, the initial Corona restrictions in force since mid-March and the closure of schools have had an impact, particularly on independent schools, which are not receiving any state support even during the crisis. It is only since September that children have been going back to school under strict conditions: the temperature is measured in the morning, masks are compulsory in class, and instead of two children, they have to sit alone at a table. In order to be able to teach smaller groups of learners, school hours were extended to Saturday and online teaching was provided for the higher classes. The long period of school closure, the large amount of extra work involved in attending lessons and the restrictions on leaving the school also posed great problems for the Waldorf School in Yerevan: "Most of the parents at our school work in the tourism industry, in cafés, restaurants and hotels", Ara Atayan from the Waldorf School, founded in the early 1990s, explains…

Dublin Steiner School is the only Waldorf school in the city. Most schools in Ireland belong to the Catholic church, very few are non-denominational or interdenominational, and very few people know anything about Waldorf Schools. As a non-denominational, independent school, Dublin Steiner School receives no financial support from the state - so it is dependent on parental contributions and fundraising. In a letter of thanks from the Dublin Steiner School it becomes clear how important mutual support is for many different institutions in the worldwide Waldorf network.

During this time of the Corona pandemic some schools find it difficult to keep children and their families in the school community when parents lose their jobs and their incomes. The Escuela Libre Micael, founded in 2013 in the southwest of Buenos Aires, is doing its best to hold the school community together. All the teachers decided to reduce their salaries to 75% and the parents promised to pay as much as they can for school fees. Most of the parents are deeply involved in the school and their shared community project. They contribute a range of goods and products for sale, organise markets and bazaars, hold seminars and workshops, and stage performances - all to raise money for their school. Strong school communities that work together, for each other, are better equipped to survive crisis and cope with external deprivation and, in doing so, work to shape their future opportunities.