This September 7, 2020 is the third anniversary of the earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale that hit the coast of the state of Oaxaca. In commemoration of this difficult moment, AVSI in Mexico and Enel Green Power handed out 200 workbooks to children, adolescents and parents in the region.
The booklets are delivered as part of the activities of the "AVSI Educational Summer" organized in the framework of the "Educational Strengthening" program, co-financed by Enel Cuore Onlus and AVSI Distance Support, where educational accompaniment is provided to 100 Children and adolescents (NNA's) affected by the 2017 earthquakes in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Since January, the students in the program have received two weekly reinforcement classes in the subjects of Science, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Geography and Chemistry.
Before the school closure, which started on March 20th, AVSI team held conferences with the students about virus-bacteria and prevention measures with emphasis on Coronavirus. Currently, during the isolation period, classes are given virtually, at the same time and day of the face-to-face classes and close accompaniment is provided through WhatsApp groups, especially to children who do not have internet and/or laptop at home.
The booklets are the tool to continue accompanying the education of these 100 children and adolescents, especially those who due to lack of internet access or computer could not connect to the virtual sessions.
"We seek to provide close accompaniment that addresses the immediate concerns of children and adolescents, in addition to introducing them to a new way of working, which could be similar to their professional future" says Sholey Castillejos, distance support program responsable for AVSI in Mexico.
As a result of the first virtual sessions, AVSI's team detected difficulties of infants in reading and writing processes, so during the Educational Summer and the booklets we have worked on the subjects of research methodology, science, sustainable development objectives and reading comprehension.
An essential part of the program is the work with parents, so we have organized the "School for Parents" where during 8 virtual sessions we will seek to strengthen the relationship with their children and guide them in the new educational modality.
Making education the engine of community recovery
The "Educational Strengthening" program was born from AVSI's educational commitment to the children of the region, initiated by the project "Educational Reactivation in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec" carried out from 2018 to 2019, thanks to the contributions of Enel's collaborators around the world who, in response to the emergency, showed their solidarity and contributed so that AVSI in Mexico could design a structured intervention, which would contribute to the recovery of the educational processes.
As part of the same project, two classrooms with sanitary facilities were built in the COBAO 02 school in El Espinal, which was seriously damaged by the earthquake. In another stage, a diploma course was opened to 40 teachers from local schools, where they were trained as protagonists of the educational process, to teach new generations the value of environmental protection and the importance of interventions aimed at combating climate change.
In addition, 40 hours were dedicated to a workshop aimed specifically at the community of El Espinal, Oaxaca, where the inhabitants of the target community and surrounding areas were sensitized to the care of the environment and developed a family risk plan and a community plan for the prevention of environmental disasters.