Once upon a time, there was an Easter Bunny father and an Easter Bunny mother who had seven children. As Easter approached they decided to find out which of the Easter Bunny children was the real Easter Bunny. The mother took a basket with seven eggs and asked each child to hide one of the eggs …   Click here to read the fairy tale The Easter Bunny

Also in Egypt schools were closed to slow down the spread of corona virus. The school founder Nathalie Kux had to travel back to Switzerland, from where she stays in contact with the teachers of the school. She describes the situation in a letter.

With more than 40 Waldorf schools in Hungary the network of Waldorf schools there is denser than in most other European countries. Statistically there is one Waldorf School per 233,000 inhabitants; in fact the density is particularly high in Budapest, the only large urban agglomeration in the country. New schools are still being founded there. The vast majority of initiatives come from parents who want to send their children to a different kind of school.

With our urgent call we would like to support Waldorf Schools affected by the economic consequences of the lockdowns in their respective countries and ask for help in implementing emergency educational programs.

The Zenzeleni Waldorf School, like all other schools in South Africa, has been closed since 18 March 2020. In the letter published below, Helen Stotko and Genevieve Langenhoven give an impressive description of the current situation and the challenges that the school community is currently facing. Apart from the concern that a Corona outbreak could quickly overwhelm the health system in South Africa, significant economic cuts can already be felt. The school community of the Zenzeleni School is being hit particularly hard as most of the families live in the township and the parents do not have a secure income. Layoffs, rising food prices and the increasingly tense economic situation mean that many families are losing their income and are no longer able to pay the minimum fees for school attendance. It is quite possible that this will result in existential challenges for the school. Support for the Zenzeleni Waldorf School, both through one-time donations or through educational…

In February the Angolan National Institute for Education Research (INIDE) hosted a lecture in the capital Luanda on alphabetization and learning how to read and write in Angola's primary schools. António and Tetiana Bazola also took part. Together, they founded and established Angola's only Waldorf School in Cabinda. In addition to representatives of the Education Commission of the Angolan Parliament and other politicians, the new Angolan Minister of Education was also present. António Bazola took the opportunity to talk to the Minister and presented her with the book "100 Years of Education towards Freedom" published by the Friends of Waldorf Education (picture). In the book, 67 Waldorf teachers explain the development of Waldorf Education in their country. António and Tetiana Bazola contributed a piece on the Waldorf School in Cabinda. In dialogue with the National Institute for Education Research they are working toward more rights and recognition for Waldorf Education in Angola.

Waldorf Education began on the Emerald Isle in the mid-1980s, at first in bitter poverty, then, after a long struggle with the Catholic-dominated Irish school system, with state support from 2008 onwards and with a considerable change in the curriculum. The number of Waldorf Schools has remained limited; they are mainly located in rural areas. In the cities, for a long time, only Waldorf Kindergartens were established.

Egypt, Hebet el-Nil Waldorf School: School gate and fruit trees providing shade Even though school attendance is mandatory in Egypt, only about every third child goes to school. Especially in rural areas and in small towns, school means classes of 70 children, rote learning, and shouting answers in unison. Children who lag behind run the risk of being beaten. When the speech formation teacher and actress Nathalie Kux was in Luxor in 2015 on a cultural journey, she met a restaurant owner, who wanted something better for the children of his neighborhood, and she decided to do something about it. She built up a Kindergarten, from which emerged, just one year later, a school with a first grade. An educator and a teacher from Switzerland came to Luxor to give seminars on Waldorf education for the local teachers. In summer 2016, the kindergarten opened with 60 children, in fall 2017 a first school class started with 24 children. Now a first school building could be finished. A further…

The Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Teacher Training Seminar will hold its fourth Steiner High School Teachers Intensive program of Professional Development from 13-17th January 2020. Teachers will meet for workshops and daily lectures with the theme “From Encounter to Insight- pathways of experience in education.” Keynote speaker will be Craig Holdrege from the Nature Institute, US. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear Craig share his work as Director and Founder of The Nature Institute. There will also be workshops organized by Lisa Devine, Alison McKean, Terry McMilan, Wolfgang Maschek and Tania Hungerford. More information can be found here

Worldwide solidarity with Waldorf education - this is the idea behind Waldorf One World Day, or WOW Day for short. On this day, people collect donations in various ways and forward the money to Waldorf institutions in need. In 2018, Napraforgó Waldorf Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és AMI in Debrecen, Hungary, took part in WOW-Day for the fifth time. Ferenc Tisch, staff member and WOW-Day coordinator at the school, tells us how the day went: “This year's WOW-Day took place at our school on 19 October 2018. As in the previous years, we had programs and events that were initiated and carried out by the students of the classes 5-9. The students chose the Shanti Sewa Griha Waldorf School in Nepal as the institution they would like to support with their donations and they set up a wonderful exhibition about Nepal. In addition, some students organized a teahouse and came up with exciting games for the younger children. It was a very nice day and we were very happy to be able to transfer an…