Dear Friends,
Like everyone else across the globe, at Pratham, we are learning a lot of new things in a hurry. We remain hopeful that we will all come out of this trying period stronger and better.
At Pratham, our first priority was to ensure that our students, teams, and families are staying safe and taking adequate precautions. As you can imagine doing this for the large Pratham network spread-out all-over India was quite daunting. Now we are figuring out how to remain engaged with our communities and students. Information (handouts, posters, videos) on how to take preventive action with regard to safety and hygiene has been shared with all teams in Hindi and in English. All teams have also set up reliable communication channels to share information quickly. Setting up mechanisms that enable us to be in constant touch from remote is also good in the long haul.
We had stopped all travel, workshops, and meetings as early as March 5, 2020, but as of March 17, 2020, all our offices and operations across the country have shut down; almost all staff members are at home with their families or now staying in a safe and secure location. For much of Pratham, working from home is a new experience because much of our work is with children, schools, and communities! As always, we remain committed and focussed on ways to remain connected with our children and our communities and stay positive and productive.
Our teams have been working quickly to ensure relevant information is available for our people and for the communities we work in. Some resources we have leveraged include WHO videos translated into regional languages (see examples below), and relevant content videos such as this one on handwashing.
We have also created COVID-19 response guidelines in Hindi and English for our teams to help them and their communities stay healthy and out of harm’s way.In this challenging time, we must come together and continue to drive ideas and innovation to help our children and communities engage and stay informed. In case you have any ideas and thoughts on how we can be of help or opportunities to collaborate on the creation and sharing of resources for communities, please do write to us at resources@pratham.org
Our Mumbai team (Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative) is working with local volunteers and organizations, with the support of the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, to implement the Mumbai Food Project with an aim to provide food and other necessities to those in need in the city. You can support the initiative by making a donation here.
We shall keep this page updated with resources along the way.
I hope you, your family members and your colleagues remain safe, healthy and out of harm’s way.
On behalf of the whole Pratham family,
Rukmini