There is silence inside and outside the walls of the Effetà Paolo VI Institute in Bethlehem. An unusual silence, a dramatic silence. The school is closed by decision of the local authorities. It was supposed to be a temporary suspension, just a few days during Ramadan. A short break, as happens every year at this time. But the international situation has quickly changed everything. Today it has already been two weeks since it became impossible to resume classes.

“The only ones attending school are the older students,” says Sister Ginetta, a teacher and daily presence alongside the hearing-impaired children at the school. “They are the students who, if everything goes well, will soon have to take their final high school exams.” For them the school remains open, almost like a last anchor to normality. All the other children, however, are at home.

Sister Ginetta’s words arrive like a thin thread between tension, fatigue, and a hope that stubbornly refuses to go out.

The roads are closed.
Checkpoints have increased.
Moving around has become difficult, often impossible.

The school tried to imagine an alternative solution, as many institutions around the world have done: continuing lessons online. But for the children of Effetà this is not possible.

“For a hearing-impaired child it is very difficult,” explains Sister Ginetta. “Lip-reading is essential in order to study. Through a computer, it simply doesn’t work.”

Clearly seeing the teacher’s face, catching the movement of the lips, the small gestures of the face: these are essential tools for understanding, learning, and participating. Behind a screen all this becomes more complicated, more tiring.

And so studying turns into an extremely difficult challenge. A struggle that adds to the stress of the situation everyone is experiencing.

Outside the school, in fact, reality is just as heavy. The children’s families have been living with a dramatic economic situation for years. “Many parents have been without work for more than two years,” the sister continues. “They are desperate. And above all they are afraid.”

Afraid of what may happen the next day, afraid for their children, afraid of a future that seems increasingly uncertain.

And yet, despite everything, the Effetà Institute continues to represent a place of hope — a place where children can learn to communicate, to express themselves, to find their own voice even in silence.

In a time marked by war and tension, the school remains a small light shining, behind which there are teachers, sisters, and families who choose every day not to give up.

Because even when the roads close and lessons stop, children’s right to learn and to dream should never be put on hold.

For years, the Giovanni Paolo II Foundation has stood alongside the Effetà Institute. Just a few months ago, when travel was still possible, its representatives visited the school and renewed the commitment carried forward thanks to our donors. A commitment that today more than ever we renew with responsibility, hope, and the desire to do something concrete for these children, for their families, and for the community — a concrete commitment to peace.