By Shalom Logos, Middle School Science Teacher

Shalom Logos (L) with Jhamtse Gatsal Science Class

COVID-19 has affected the lives of everyone around the world. It affected our lives too at Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community when went into a lockdown as a precaution, almost 4 months ago. A small team made limited visits to the market for the essentials of the community Community and graduates who returned to the community home from college were quarantined. Regular instructions and updates were shared with the community members regarding the situation around the world and about the various preventive measures that we could adopt as a community to stay safe.

Jhamtse Gatsal has been a safe haven during these difficult times but and we couldn’t can’t help but think about everyone around the world and their struggles they were going through because of the pandemic. Thus, the entire community came together for a workshop on “COVID-19 Awareness and Our Response”. The workshop had two objectives. Firstly, to make everyone in the community, both adults and children, should be aware of the novel COVID-19, its mode of transmission and its prevention. Secondly, the community should be aware of the spread among community members about the struggles that people around the world are going through.

Knowing the situation of the people outside the community, each member in the community empathised with them and we began looking beyond the our own safety of the community. The children and staff split into 4 groups. Each group picked a category of problems and brainstormed on solutions to these problems. The purpose of the exercise was to empathize connect with the world, and critically analyse problems and design solutions. We had several constraints in terms of resources, (further hindered by the lockdown), but we decided that the least we should could do it was think about it the challenges and come up with suggestions that we can could share with others.

With the schools and colleges being shut down, Group A picked the problems faced in education because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Group B picked the problems that small and large businesses are facing currently and the huge problem our country will face economically after the pandemic.

The frontline workers like doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police and others face a lot of problems as they work to keep the people safe. Group C decided to find ways to help and acknowledge their hard work.

Group D discussed the problems faced by the general population in three sub-categories of young people, the old people and the ones with prior medical conditions.

The groups brainstormed various ways in which we could help as a community and different possible suggestions that we could give to the state government to help these people. The groups presented their ideas to the other members of the community and received their feedback. Each day, all the children and staff met in their respective groups for about two hours and took their ideas forward. After two weeks of hard work, we had made manya few different accomplished projects.

Focusing on educating children in the Mon-region on sustainable practices, a video was made on “Covid-19 and Sustainability”. The video in the local Monpa dialect depicted various sustainable practices at Jhamtse Gatsal such as organic farming at Jhamtse Gatsal that could be practiced in the villages during the nation-wide lockdown. The video encouraged local people to turn from regular rote learning to experiential sustainable education.
Considering the general population in the remote areas around Jhamtse Gatsal, who lack awareness about Covid-19, a video was made on “Covid-19 – Prevention and Awareness” in Monpa language. To encourage and educate the local people on correct washing hand-washings techniques, another video was made on “How to Wash Hands” in Monpa language. The videos were shared to with all of the villages through social media and local contacts.
To thank the doctors and nurses around the world who have put their lives on the line to serve the infected people, a video was made on “Gratitude to Doctors and Nurses.”. This video was shared on social media on “Nurses Day.”. We felt this was the only way we could thank the doctors and nurses besides staying safe at home as they worked hard for us.
Wearing masks is essential during these times. Masks however, they were not available to the general public, as it they were mostly reserved mostly for hospital use. Therefore, one of the groups made masks for everyone in the community using old but good quality the cotton clothes we had at the community. Many staff members donated still wearable clothes to enable this project. Children and adults began stitching masks. We had made 150 masks in just 4 days. After getting them approved from local medical authorities, we made enough masks so that each community member could have at least two masks. A presentation was made to the community on the purpose of wearing masks and on safety measures while using masks.
We had to get used to washing hands regularly to prevent contracting the virus. Due to the high demand, hand-wash wasn’t easily available in the market. One of the groups researched and experimented with making natural hand-wash using just natural local ingredients. Not only would a 100% natural hand-wash be beneficial now, it would also take us one step closer to our goal of living sustainably. While this is not in use at the Community, The children continue to experiment and hope that in the near future they will be able to get their samples tested and verified by the right pertinent authorities for to enable widespread use.

During these difficult times, everyone at Jhamtse Gatsal has worked together to make the community one of the safest places in the world, but we feel deep empathy for our families and friends around the world in during this global crisis. We hold all of you in our thoughts and prayers. We know that we cannot heal the world today, but we can take a step towards making it a little safer and a little happier!

COVID-19 Update