Angel Gabriel has delivered the message to Virgin Mary that she will bear a child and the child to be born will be called the Son of God. And this is truly what has happened even though Mary was a virgin. Thus, God is capable of everything and that is what we at Effeta School believe in.

With the joint efforts of everyone at Effeta School and with God’s help, we have gladly and thankfully completed the first semester of our 2020/2021 academic year and we could not feel more proud and thankful for achieving that. Truly nothing is impossible with God.

As mentioned before, we have taken every safety and health measure to be able to reopen our school for our dear students during the spread of the COVID 19 virus in our country Palestine. However, it has not been an easy task at all to achieve that. Since late August 2020, we have gradually welcomed our students back and have worked on spreading awareness about this new virus that has suddenly affected our lives. All through the semester we have used special transparent masks and a face shield on top to be able to educate our students and communicate with them; these were some of the most important tools which enabled us to sustain our methodology of education through lip-reading.

But most importantly, it was the awareness of the importance of sustaining the health practices which kept the school open this semester; keeping a social distance between each other, keeping the masks on, using sanitizers whenever one is touching surfaces, and in cases when one caught the virus, notify the school and the people whom one has interacted with of carrying the virus. We are proud that our teachers, staff, students and parents of students are all aware of the best health practices to avoid the virus and are spreading this awareness among their surroundings. We believe this is an achievement by itself.

Driven by the mission of the founder of the Sisters of S. Dorothy, the blessed Giovanni Antonio Farina, the mission of caring for deaf children among other disadvantaged children, educating them and elevating them morally and socially, we at Effeta school will continue to implement our mission especially during hard and complicated conditions. Due to financial constraints and precautious health measures, our school was only able to open for 4 days a week. This has put an extra pressure on our teachers and staff to deliver the required educational material to the students in a shorter period of time. Also it has been a challenge to our students to learn and absorb the material in a shorter period of time considering the differences in the learning abilities of the students.

We are hopeful and will work towards opening our school for the next educational semester. Effeta School will turn 50 next year and we sure have encountered a lot of ups and downs to arrive to where we are now. Therefore, even during tough conditions, we will find ways to survive and continue our mission. However, we need your support to be able to do that. The pandemic has put our school and our students in tough economic conditions. Therefore any kind of financial support will make a difference for our school and our students.

We would like to wish our friends, partners and supporters a blessed Christmas and a better new year. May the birth of our savior cause the rebirth of all good in this world.

Sister Lara Hijazin

Ephpheta Paul VI School director