ABHIRA’S STORY
Nepal
UWS community school
Abhira is 9 years old and lives in a remote village in Eastern Nepal. She normally attends the UWS community school in her village but – like billions of children around the globe – her school is currently shut due to COVID-19.
Communities like Abhira’s have been severely affected by the impact of the national lockdown. They survive on a low daily wage so being unable to work means struggling to feed their families. The lockdown has caused severe anxiety in Abhira’s community.
What’s more, fewer than half of the communities we support in Nepal have access to the internet, making it impossible for them to access an online education. We turned to a medium many might consider old-fashioned: radio.
Over 85% of households within the communities we work with have a radio. So we began teaching a daily lesson over a handful of local radio stations, with prompts for further homework. Within weeks, 10,000 children were listening each day and more radio stations wanted to broadcast our work – we now work in collaboration with 10 local FM stations.
Every day, Abhira is one of the 10,000 children who tunes into our daily radio programme, through which we are delivering lessons remotely and sharing vital public health information about preventing the spread of coronavirus.
“I tune into the radio everyday and enjoy listening to stories and fun facts. Due to the radio programme and support from my teacher, I feel more relaxed now. Me, my family and community are aware about coronavirus and how to stay safe.”
– Abhira
The longer vulnerable children are out of school, the less likely they are to return. By supporting children in innovative and accessible ways during the crisis, we’re making sure they don’t miss out on education now and in the long-term.
Name has been changed to protect identity.