Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been in close contacts with our Local Committees and sent out a questionnaire a few weeks ago to get an overview of the situation on the ground.
1. State of Health & Lockdown – so far so good
According to the information currently available to us, all members of our teams and our scholarship holders are healthy. We hope that this will remain so!
In Perú, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala, very restrictive measures have been taken to prevent the spread of the virus (in particular, closure of all shops and schools and extensive curfews). These have severely restricted everyday life, especially studying at universities and technical colleges.
2. Change to Online Teaching – mostly successful switch, yet action is needed
Although all our partner universities and colleges have successfully switched over to online teaching, there are still uncertainties about the further course of studies: in particular, practical exercises, exams and internships will be difficult in the foreseeable future. Likewise, there are currently no graduation ceremonies – let's hope that these can soon be made up in a suitable form.
However, our questionnaire also highlighted some very practical, current challenges: for example, not all our scholarship holders have the appropriate equipment or infrastructure (computers, mobile telephones, internet access, etc.) to seamlessly follow virtual classes. Therefore, we are currently working with our Local Committees on solutions to close this “digital gap” soon.
These measures will require further funding of our country programs.
3. Economic Impact – urgent action needed
The largest impact, however, comes from the economic shutdown.
As a result of this, the financial situation of some of our scholarship holders and their families deteriorated so fast and massively that some are no longer able to secure their daily basic needs. Hence, this situation requires immediate action!
Furthermore, we expect that the situation on the labor market will deteriorate massively and that it will be more difficult for our scholarship holders to start their careers. Finally, the returns from the "Compromiso de Honor" have already decreased and we expect the situation to become more difficult in the future.
Consequently, we have taken steps to establish local “Emergency Funds” in order to grant support for those in dire need.
This measure will be an additional financial burden for our foundation.
We will be happy to keep you informed about our next steps related to the measures above and would be delighted if we could discuss these with you.
