Challenges of work in Covid-19 epidemic

Covid-19 emergency has brought a numerous daily challenges to our Integration House Team. Together with children, with their participation, we re-organized time in the Integration House “Pedro Arrupe”.
Covid-19 emergency has brought a numerous daily challenges to our Integration House Team. Together with children, with their participation, we re-organized time in the Integration House “Pedro Arrupe”.

Some activities had to be postponed (like visits and socialization with children from other schools and shelters) but we managed to keep daily excursions (without socializing with other groups of people) and to maintain strong education component (online classes, and classes and learning support provided by our staff). In addition to our regular activities, we had activities with our partners that we have switched to online workshops. We continued to receive regular support from child psychologists. Although it was a state of emergency, we had several cases for which it was necessary to go to the doctor and which needed to be monitored. These were non Covid-19 infection cases, but cases related to mental health to chronic or acute diseases. Significant part of our engagement was spent on medical assistance.

Besides education, focus of our team was on the occupational therapy of children, so we arranged the garden and terrace, decorated it with flowers to spend our free time in a nicer and more pleasant space. Every morning we had physical and sports activities of children and educators to start the day full of energy. During afternoon, time was reserved for online classes and homework. In the evening, we organized a home cinema 3 times a week, for which the children chose a movie. As the school year continued, we concentrated on mastering the material through online classes, and assisting children, so that at the end of May 2020 all children have successfully finished school year, of which we single out two high school students who finished classes with very good and excellent results. The new school year 2020/2021 started in September but was transferred to online classes in November. JRS staff will keep focus on the education of children and provide socialization and sport activities in the Integration House.