Usthi looks back on an eventful year. We are impressed by the commitment of our local partners in India and Nepal and overwhelmed by the great solidarity that Usthi experienced again this year.

With new faces on the board of trustees, Usthi started the new year with renewed enthusiasm. But soon the foundation was facing its first challenges. The global spread of Covid-19 forced the Usthi team to work from home and in spring 2020 some of the local projects had to be temporarily paused.

Many families of the school children in Ananda, Hyderabad and Penthakata temporarily lost their income due to the lockdown. Thanks to generous emergency relief donations, Usthi was able to provide food aid for severely affected families. The local partners and employees made extraordinary contributions to continue ensuring access to quality education and skills training, access to medical care and protection against violence and human trafficking.

They impressed with their flexibility to implement the projects even under difficult conditions. As soon as it was made possible, the projects were continued in the best practicable way. During months of school closures, they provided the students with worksheets for self-study, recorded lessons on video and held tutoring sessions over the phone.

While in Europe the Covid-19 case numbers are increasing again, they are fortunately still declining in India. This made it possible to grant the upper classes access to their schools for exam preparation. In Nepal, too, the development of the new Usthi education project made further progress. Teaching there is currently taking place in small groups. Usthi hopes that the development will soon allow all grades to resume classroom teaching.

Usthi is extremely grateful for the great support we received this year. The Usthi team wishes you a merry holiday season and a good start into 2021.