With our Bangladesh project we support a school in Moanoghar. Recently we received the following message, which also includes a report on the Corona situation in Bangladesh:

"The Covid 19 pandemic has affected us in many ways. Throughout the country, all educational institutions have remained closed since March 17th 2020 until today. We had expected that school operations would resume this month, but then suddenly the second wave of Covid-19 began. As of April 5, we were back in lockdown. The government has announced a complete lockdown across the country from April 14. Every day the number of Covid-19 cases and fatalities is increasing, with an average of over 6,000 Covid-19 cases reported last week. Since last year, a total of 684,756 cases of Covid-19 infections have been reported nationwide, of which 7,279 have died.

Some individuals in our neighboring regions have also been infected with Covid-19. So far, we are safe in Moanoghar, and no one has been infected. But the lockdown has far-reaching implications for us and for the children's education. We are trying our best to deal with this situation."

The lockdown of educational institutions from April 2020, referred to in this message, lasted 18 months and was one of the longest worldwide. The government decided to do so because the country has neither significant testing capacities nor a healthcare system that is remotely comparable to ours. During the lockdown period, the general social climate in the country worsened. Only a small part of the schoolchildren and students were able to make use of online services offered by the educational institutions.