Replanning - rapid and flexible responses of the SchoolHospital Foundation
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Monika Tóth Almásy
Abstract
The SchoolHospital Foundation supports the education rehabilitation process of children who drop out of school due to chronic illness by the co-operation of high school and university student volunteers. A framework system has been developed with the involvement of experts from both the education and health sector to reach the goal. This system ensures adequate support for both helpers and the ones they help to be able to pursue their common activities in a safe and successful way. The existing framework system was entirely moved to the on-line space at the beginning of the pandemic and the possibility of learning was given for the children of healthcare workers as well as for children living with chronic illness. The aim of the case study is to show the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operation of the organization and on the activities of volunteers. We will present the challenges the organization had to face and the responses that were given to them. Furthermore, we will show the criteria according to which the new group in need for help was chosen and how the recruitment and preparation of the new volunteers as well as the operational management of the growing number of participants was going on. We will specify the operational and technical problems as well as the difficulties that were encountered by the volunteers and healthcare workers during the program and we will present the answers that were given. We will describe the positive impact of the undertaking and successful completion of extra tasks on the life of SchoolHospital Foundation. The data used for this case study are taken from the statistical and impact assessment documents of the organization. Extra activities were examined in a chronological order, bringing volunteers into focus
Keywords: education rehabilitation, COVID-19 pandemic, volunteering, online learning, SchoolHospital Foundation,