Help for girls in India

From the 2021 Annual Report

India was particularly hard hit by the second wave of Covid-19 in the spring of 2021. Within a very short time, the healthcare system was completely overwhelmed by the spread of the Delta variant. PATRIZIA Child Care Porayar was also badly affected by the pandemic. The PATRIZIA Foundation invested money from the Covid-19 relief fund to help the KinderHaus facility. In India, all schools closed for almost eleven months from mid-March 2020. The government cancelled annual final exams and graded all students as ‘passed’, thus allowing them to advance to the next year. Since late January 2021, older schoolchildren in years 9 to 12 have been allowed to return to school subject to distancing and hygiene rules.

Some girls did enjoy being at home again, however, and were able to help their parents with household chores. But they missed their friends, the nutritional food at the dormitory, playing games together and of course school lessons. They also realised that learning at school is more effective than online lessons. When schools reopened for the higher grades, the girls were overjoyed to see their classmates and teachers again.

To shield students and teachers from Covid-19, class numbers were reduced from 35 children to 15 and everyone had to adhere to physical distancing rules. In addition, a variety of hygiene measures were introduced (provision of masks, soap, hand disinfectants, measuring temperatures before classes). All of these measures were funded by the PATRIZIA Foundation’s coronavirus relief fund, as was the purchase of a computer and a photocopier to support learning requirements and provide online instruction. In addition, the foundation helped the girls’ families and staff at the school buy food to meet basic requirements.