Our daily life is disrupted by the worldwide effects of the coronavirus. Events from large to small are cancelled, schools are closed in many countries, companies face enormous challenges and the health of our loved ones may not be longer safe if we do not follow the necessary measures. Your life as a student, as an entrepreneur, as a parent, as a family member or friend has also changed in a short time and deserves the highest priority.
Dance4Life is receiving support from its donors, partners and the Friends4Life network not only from financial resources, but also from shared knowledge and expertise in many different areas. This helps us continue our work even under the current pandemic. This page will contain an overview of Dance4Life’s work in this uncertain period. For an update on our offline programs, please see further down. But first, we want to share all the exciting new things we are working on based on creative ideas from our franchisees and our master trainers.
OUR WORK CONTINUES ONLINE!
We are proud to see our master trainers and franchisees jointly coming up with innovative ideas for mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the young people and communities that we serve. Within weeks of the global lockdown measures, our master trainers had co-created a to support young people to navigate the changes we are experiencing due to the current crisis. This Youth Guide is also available in French and Russian.
At the same time, franchisees and master trainers started testing online ways for engaging young people. For example, our Russian partner tested an online quiz about sexual & reproductive health, while other partners started activating young people via radio in areas where internet connection is more limited. Our partners shared learning and exchanged ideas through a new Creative Crisis Response group led by our Board of Franchisees.
This has encouraged us tremendously, but we still felt that it was not enough to truly support young people on the ground. This is why, based on the demand and with enormous support from 15 Trainers4Life and a dedicated group of franchisees we have started co-creating an online version of the Journey4Life. While franchisees in around 10 countries are already testing new activities and engaging with young people via tools including Zoom, Whatsapp and radio, we are also hard at work developing a Theory of Change for an online program, with a set of design sprints to take place in the coming months. By the end of the year, we aim to have prototyped, tested and created a blueprint of the online Journey4Life opening new doors for online, blended and face-to-face programs!
Our master trainers – our Trainers4Life – have continued following online learning modules and receiving personalised coaching calls via our gamified and blended learning platform Academy4Life and we are currently onboarding a new group of soon-to-be Trainers4Life to the platform. In April-June we opened the platform to a group of 18 young advocates from the Right Here Right Now alliance who followed a tailor-made e-learning program. Based on the success of this pilot we are now seeking to expand this program to more advocates.
And finally, in the Netherlands we have engaged with young people in an inspiring way via social media together with our ambassadors. In our recent podcast series we flipped the tables and had young people answer questions about sex from parents – a big success and the first of its kind!
-Status of Dance4Life's (inter)national programs
Our colleagues from the (inter)national teams have taken stock of the status and impact of the global measures together with all local partners, while Dance4Life’s Business Development team and Fundraising team have been in close contact with partners and donors about the impact on the programs and the use of allocated funds. We are humbled to see the flexibility and motivation from all stakeholders to work together to continue supporting young people in these difficult times.
Update per country and partner
- Malawi– AMREF: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Ghana– TFSC: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Uganda– Restless Development: All program activities shut down until further notice
- China– CFPA: All program activities shut down until June
- Indonesia– RutgersWPF Indonesia: All program activities and our research are shut down until further notice
- Nepal– Restless Development: Status unknown
- Pakistan– BWA: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Pakistan– FPAP: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Russia– Focus Media: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Kazakhstan– AFEW Kazakhstan: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Kyrgyzstan– AFEW Kyrgyzstan: All program activities shut down until further notice
- Ukraine– AFEW Ukraine: All program activities shut down until further notice
And last but not least:
Stay safe and take good care of yourself and each other!
Team Dance4Life