Skip to main content

Missing of school..

Dechen among children in her village
watch their lesson on national TV
(courtesy of UNICEF Bhutan)
I read this beautiful heart touching story of a child (age 11) living in rural Bhutan – South Asia. She reminded my childhood at her age going to our neighbor's house to watch television, and the time when I was following lessons on TV at the height of the civil war in Sri Lanka. This is an era before the internet and mobile phones became part of our everyday life.

As mentioned in the article, just published by UNICEF, today children are taught lessons not only in classroom but also online even in rural parts of the world. But as Dechen echoed, going to school is an experience no other can replace – like holding/smelling a textbook or a letter handwritten by your child/sponsor.

Dechen says, “I miss my school, my teachers and my friends. I understand the lessons better in school when our teachers explain; I don’t understand much when I watch it on TV. At school, the teacher explains until we understand the lessons but on television, the lessons go very fast and we can’t catch up.”

I was fortunate to have had teachers like Dechen’s, who were not only eminent scholars but fine human beings. I'm learning what/how the schools and governments in which our sponsored children attend address the educational needs during Covid pandemic. Like the UNICEF is supporting printing of the lessons broadcast on TV.

I'm in contact with UNICEF to try and help support Dechen's needs directly at this time of many challenges she's facing. Needless to say, right now all children must be missing the face-to-face interaction at school as much as many fun activities at CI centers.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous16 July 2020 at 14:58

    This is a wonderful story Chelaka !

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

As the 2022 draws to a close..

My life devoted to helping the children of this world started exactly 17 years ago on this day with Children International. Initially I was looking for a child sponsorship program through UK based organisation because every $ or £ I donate the UK government would have added 25% on top (as opposed to less Income Tax taken off from your earnings in the USA). In other words, living and working in the UK, yet supporting a charity outside the country won't have any tax benefits to either myself or CI. It was a big decision for me personally. I did my research and decided to go with CI and another international program based here for a year just to compare the services. CI stood up to my expectations despite losing that extra governmental support. It was very different or (should I say) the golden time of this organisation. Today, my sponsorship world spans across 3 continents with CI and 3 other local NGOs based in Bhutan and Sri Lanka. In fact my Bhutanese sponsorship inspired by a sto
Post a Comment
Read more

World of Delicious Recipes

I recently asked the children in my second 'group letter' to write a recipe for a healthy dish. They were asked to imagine that one day I travel afar from Scotland to come see them, and they are going to make a special dish just for me. Before my travel, a food bag will be delivered to their home, which contains the following items & ingredients costing total of less than $10. 1) Mix vegetable packet, 2) Pack of tomatoes, 3) Packet of red onions, 4) Rice packet, 5) Tinned salmon, 6) Olive oil bottle, 7) Curry powder, 8) Chilli powder, 9) Fresh green chillies, 10) Cooking salt. Assuming they have all the pots/pans/utensils, the challenge was to write a set of instructions for preparing their dish but only using the above list, name the dish and finally, as a paying customer how much would they charge me for the meal. I was looking for their best of culinary skills to prepare a recipe for a nutritious and tasteful dish. To my astonishment, Aaron from Guayaquil has
Post a Comment
Read more

Visit to Mundo Petapa

After our long awaited reunion voyage, I thought taking back down the memory lane to remember times of joy CI sponsorship brought to us all. The younger sister, Nicole, niece, grandmother and the parents joined Estephanie to celebrate her 9th birthday anniversary at Mundo Petapa , an amusement park in Guatemala City. This park was inaugurated over four decades ago. There the family discovered various fun activities, especially being enjoyed by the father gave enormous boost to excitement, along with a break for the main event in the cafeteria – what a memorable day made possible by the staff at CI Mariscal! (photos added to my SCS blog ) As I learn about the family closely now, they are not just fun loving but well known and respected in the community. I'm full of admiration for their advocacy by getting children involved in every aspect of life. And Estephanie being 'ahijada' (goddaughter) is a very special honor any sponsor can ever dreamed for. Today, my care in h
Post a Comment
Read more