Kildare Steiner School is an independent, multi-denominational school in County Kildare that receives no state funding. In Ireland, too, the pandemic led to increased unemployment and reduced income for many people - school fees could no longer be paid in the usual way. How a school day unfolded during this time was described by the school in a letter from spring 2021.

The latest version of the List of all Waldorf Schools was published in May 2021. In the Waldorf World List you will find the addresses of all Waldorf Schools, Waldorf Kindergartens, Waldorf Associations and Waldorf Teacher Trainings worldwide. It is updated at least once a year and published as a PDF on our website. For more information please go to: freunde-waldorf.de.

The Zenzeleni School for Creative Education is located in one of the townships around Cape Town. The parents of most of the children who go to school here earn their money with their own small businesses, selling vegetables or fruit. Others find work in the hospitality industry, or in tourism. Accordingly, many parents had to accept heavy income losses in the wake of the Corona crisis. This was a particular challenge for the teachers, for whom it was important not to lose contact with the children even in times of complete lockdown. Helen Stotko, executive director of the Centre for Creative Education, describes how this was made possible by the donations received.

Where there is normally a lot of activity and life, there has been a yawning emptiness since the pandemic measures cut across normal life. With the absence of tourists, the coffers are empty and parents who send their children to the kindergarten and primary classes at the Waldorf School in Alanya can no longer afford to pay. Added to this is the increasingly difficult economic situation in Turkey with rising inflation and the devaluation of the Turkish Lira.

Capao Bonito, about 233 km from São Paulo, is home to the non-profit organization CREAR. What CREAR does and how the children get to the facility, you can find out here.

Pampa del Infierno is a very small town in the north of Argentina. In the middle of the endless grassy landscape some highly committed parents founded the Waldorf Kindergarten, Colmena Azul and also found some kindergarten teachers in the area. The Corona crisis put the young Waldorf initiative to the test. It almost seemed as if the kindergarten would have to close. But fortunately, things turned out differently, as Amelia Bertoldi and Claudio Galvan wrote to us, on behalf of the community of Colmena Azul:

In the southwest of England, the Bristol Steiner School has been offering Waldorf education since 1973. When a state funded Steiner Academy was opened near the school, many students migrated because the school fees for the Waldorf School are a high hurdle for many parents. As of September 2017, the school had to close its middle and high school phases due to a lack of students. Today, it is a small, independent school for children ages 3 to 11. Many parents run small businesses or are in therapeutic professions and struggled to afford school fees due to the impact of the Corona crisis. Without support from Joint Action: Corona Aid, the school would have had to close. This did not happen, as the school's director Nicola Forder wrote to us in February:

Founded in 2016, the Waldorf School in Alanya teaches students from kindergarten to eighth grade. As an independent school, it receives no state support and relies on parent contributions and donations for funding. The parents of most of the children work in the tourism sector and are still struggling with heavy income losses. Thanks to the donations from the Joint Action: Corona Aid, the school has, despite everything, been able to survive. The school staff sent us their thanks in a letter at the beginning of March.

There has been a small Waldorf school in Zanzibar since 2012. In this semi-autonomous island province off the coast of Tanzania, half of the population lives below the poverty line and about 12 percent of the children are malnourished. Most of the children who attend the school come from just such backgrounds and are mainly orphans, or half-orphans. In order to improve their nutritional health, they are given milk porridge before classes start, a snack at break time, the midday meal and always some fruit, or an egg to eat on the way home, as the children often get little more than a cup of tea at home. The school management wants to become as self-reliant as possible in feeding the children and so a small school farm is gradually being set up. In 2019, about 250 chickens were purchased, which roam the extensive school grounds in the shade of clove bushes, mango trees and many other perennials. A good 200 eggs are collected daily. In addition, two cows have now been purchased, thanks…

"Medase!" is what they say in Ghana for "Thank you!". With these words, the people from the Cosmos Center in Dormaa thank the dedicated students who participated in WOW-Day 2020. Here, you can find out where your donation will go and what the school route of the "Nsuoba" - the ‘river children’ (in Ghana, that's what children born with disabilities are called) – looks like.