Together

The beginning of the school year was expected by everyone: by us, happy to be able to completely reopen the doors of the Arsenale; by the children who have been asking us for months "when does the bus come to pick us up?"; from families tired by months of social isolation, from teachers aware of how much there was a need to start over.

However, the increase in covid-19 cases in Jordan also forced us to postpone it. The real risk of having to close shortly after reopening - with great discomfort for our children who are very sensitive to any change in routine - and the effort that social distancing would entail for them made us understand that our desire to reopen had to remain unchanged, but find a different way to materialize. So we accepted together the challenge of transforming the video calls that we used to keep in touch during the lockdown into a real educational tool, which allows us to be close to everyone as if we were at the Arsenal. We involved the parents one by one, explaining to them the importance of participating in online activities. Then we looked for ideas and useful materials to offer the children different types of workshops. And we left. One day we write and draw, another we do mathematics and then we make a sandwich and eat it "together", another day the physiotherapist proposes a motor path that everyone reconstructs live at home, the speech therapist comes to tell a story or you continue remotely gardening and sewing lessons ... In the meantime, the therapists also continue their work with the children involved in individual sessions and have made themselves available to offer telephone advice to those who contact us for the first time asking for a help.

We are experiencing together that the Arsenale is inside us before being a physical place. And from where we are, it makes us be together that village where we share, help each other, make a team, continue to be together for the good of our little ones, whatever it takes. In recent weeks the Lord has made us see beyond our imaginations that it is possible. Always.

Arsenale dell'Incontro

NP ottobre 2020