On March 4, our first online meeting with C4C mentors and teachers took place. Due to the pandemic, we cannot meet this amazing team of people with their hearts in the right place in person, as we have done in previous years, and we have all started to miss them. We used IT technology, as everyone has to do these days, and we met them “only” virtually, but we all lit candles as a symbol of physical connection.
The meeting was attended by 12 of them. Markéta Franke, director of the C4C Endowment Fund, opened the virtual session by talking about the new activities that C4C is currently doing and about our humanitarian aid in children’s homes. One of our music teachers, Michal Němeček, then played guitar for us – his little concert touched everyone´s heart-strings. Monika Kavanová, one of our mentors who led the whole meeting, then prepared self-motivating activities for us. And on the top of that all, we got beautiful picture drawn by our amazing clown Vendy Tichotová during the session.
We managed to create a space to share everything that “our” people had on their hearts. Of course, we also talked about how difficult it is to teach children through computer or mobile screens – many of our teachers do online lessons now and face a number of minor or major difficulties. Even so, they perceive it as lucky that they can see “their” children in person at least this way from a distance.
“It’s definitely not easy,” says Petra Erguvanli, coordinator of C4C´s Springboard to Life program, which sponsors the activities of teachers and mentors in children’s homes. “We value all the more teachers and mentors who haven’t given up on those months of madness, and they go on with the children. They are amazing people who take their activities as a mission, and it is touching to watch them not stop. ”
“We would wholeheartedly wish we could work offline again,” comments mentor Markéta Franke. “We miss personal meetings with children, the normal functioning of C4C activities. We perceive the huge frustration of children in children’s homes, the huge commitment and despair of educators and the management of children’s homes. Despite all odds, we try to be as useful as we can.”
All we can do now is to take a deep breath, endure all restrictions and go on. Please help us with that! As a result of the current restrictions we had to close public collections, which we mainly used to fund the running of C4C’s activities. We are supported only by YOU! Please consider joining our “Club of Friends of Springboard to Life and C4C” by clicking here.
We really need your help to continue our work and we appreciate it immensely!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Author: Petra Erguvanli and Zuzana Šrámková
