Hope through the Pandemic

The Effects of COVID-19

It has been a year filled with many challenges in Honduras and for our schools, but it has also given us the opportunity to develop new strategies to keep advancing in long distance education and not stop our mission.  

Families have been affected physically, emotionally, and socially throughout the pandemic. Students were sent home and all school activities were cancelled by the Ministry of Education. Many parents have lost their jobs or taken significant pay cuts. Students are isolated at home and have had little intellectual stimulation. Some family members of students have contracted the virus and lost their lives.

In Tegucigalpa, Ebelina Arteaga, the Principal at Lifeline Christian Academy elaborates: 

“These months have been long and exhausting for the parents. Despite the daily tasks of a home, work; moms and dads both work in many families, they have had to learn to teach their children at home; something that is not common in the families in our country. Many of the parents don’t know how to teach a child to read or guide them in learning; and in some cases there has been frustration, desperation finding themselves in the need of taking their children out of school with the hope that next year things will get better and the school can be open again.”

Members of the community have had to make adjustments and adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic. Please continue to pray for our students and the community.

Hope through the Pandemic

In the midst of all these challenges, God has been so faithful! 

With the passing of time Lifeline schools have had to learn to use tools that were not normally used in the day to day. The pandemic has pushed the schools to be more creative, seek to learn the unknown and implement new methods that they had never imagined using in a classroom! From this push for innovation and change, the schools have seen positive impact and growth: parents that have never been involved in their children's learning are now engaged and responding positively to the new changes. 

Principal Ebelina adds that, “We have seen the positive side: parents that had not been involved in their children's learning, have to do so now and in many cases the response has been positive. Learning to remember to give time for each thing, and more.”

Students will not attend the school for the rest of 2020, which means that Lifeline’s schools in Honduras will finish classes virtually on November 30th. Currently students receive four daily classes, 40 min. each. The school staff thanks God for this experience!