Child above the water

The disability that Denisa was born with was considered by doctors to be incompatible with life. Today she is ten years old. She lives thanks to modern medicine and the loving care of her mother Pavlína Vejvodová. Denisa has an outlet from her stomach and a cannula inserted into her throat, which needs to be cleaned many times a day. She doesn't eat or speak on her own. She only recognizes light and darkness by sight. Her mother Pavlína is already experienced. She can manage daily care on her own. But she has to do it 24 hours a day. 

She broke up with her partner three years ago. Her three other children share the household with her. Naturally, she can't give them the attention they deserve. This also applies to her daughter Zuzka.

Mutual disconnecting?

Everyone who knew Zuzka closely speaks of her as a bright girl. She's very lively and ahead of her peers. She enjoys being friends with adults, and responds to them promptly and intelligently. She can discuss social issues with them, which she gets from the internet. She also discusses relationships with great enthusiasm. At the age of 11, she is already interested in boys. She's very much living it.

In the classroom, however, her dominance manifests itself in a rather destructive way. She draws attention to herself during breaks and in class, and as a strong personality, she's pretty good at it. Working with such a pupil is extremely complicated for a teacher and Zuzka is well on her way to completely disconnecting from the school and the school disconnecting with her. No good news for the future of an eleven-year-old girl.

An idea from the time of the pandemic

It is education that offers children from families in difficult circumstances a hope for a better future. No influential relatives can teach them the way to live; they have to fend for themselves. The more education they receive, the more likely they are to succeed in life.

Social activation workers are well aware of this fact. In their work with families, they therefore focus on coping with school as one of their priorities. This has been particularly urgent recently, when a pandemic has swept the world. Pupils were staying at home, studying at a distance, and parents from families in difficult circumstances were particularly unable to keep up with their children's schoolwork. The decline of many pupils was unmistakable.

The Diaconia in Vrchlabí and Jaroměř therefore joined forces to help the pupils, and thus Child Above Water was born. Diaconia tutors work with class teachers and regularly work with those children who do not have good conditions at home to handle school. 

We're not giving up

Zuzka's class ends around 12:00 on Monday. She's got a school club starting at 2:00, which is like a playgroup for fifth and sixth graders. Before the club, Zuzka and her classmate Dominik are being visited by Petra Tomášová, a lecturer of the Child Above Water project. 

She often works with the children on Czech and maths. But it's not just about tutoring, as you can see: today, Petra lays out words with strong emotions attached to them in two columns around the desk. In one column the negative ones, in the other the positive ones. Petra first asks the children if they understand all the words. The words to be clarified are: tenderness, frustration, hope. Here Zuzka's cleverness shows through. Even though she doesn't know the exact meanings of the words, she thinks out loud about them and points in the right direction. "We have the hope of making something happen. Maybe improve our grades," he finishes his reflection.

Mrs Petra invites the children to choose words that they associate with school. 

From the positive ones Zuzka chooses love, happiness and gratitude. Of the negative ones, she chooses anger and sadness. During the next work, the lecturer guides the children on how to deal with emotions at school - when a negative emotion comes up, one does not have to succumb to it. "What helps you when you are sad?" Zuzka asks. Talking to her friends or calling her sister, is the answer. But neither is allowed in school during lessons. "But it can help if you just remember. Or anything else that makes you happy," Petra Tomášová concludes today's meeting.

As she says, she not only supports children in subjects they are not mastering, but also provides them with personal support. The goal is not to make the four-year-olds into straight-A students, but to give them a healthy self-confidence so that they can deal with difficult situations on their own and ask for help when it is beyond them.

It is also about accepting their own family situation. For example, in the past, Zuzka made up a lot of stories. She would tell her classmates and her teacher how wonderful her home was; everyone knew or at least suspected that this was not true. According to Zuzka's class teacher Zuzana Krudencová, this has improved a lot. Although Zuzka is still one of the most difficult students in her class, she has also improved in her schoolwork. "Despite all the limits she encounters, she is incredibly hardworking," she says. 

Petra Tomášová also referred Zuzka to the scout association. 

She has been a member since December and is very enthusiastic. Girl Scouting could also give Zuzka a boost. Especially to satiate her hunger for interpersonal contact.

But Diaconia can also help families in other ways than supporting their children's education. This is the task of social activation services for families with children. They range from helping families deal with the authorities, to solving problems with finances or housing, to providing psychological support for children or parents. However, families who would most need social activation services often do not know about them or are too shy to ask for help. "But thanks to the Child Above Water project, many parents have gained confidence in us. They understand that we are there for them and they turn to us for advice and help," says Dana Zaplatílková, coordinator of the Child Above Water project from Diaconia Vrchlabí.

Child Over Water continues with the support of hundreds of individual donors of the Boxes Online fundraiser. Thank you! 

Adam Šůra