COVID-19 is a challenge for everyone, including Passerelles numériques staff and students: it has challenged our mission, it has changed our work habits and made us question our ways of proceeding. We would like to share with you how we have overcome challenges and to acknowledge our staff’s and students’ creativity, patience and professionalism during this difficult time.
PN remote working round up!
Working remotely for a long period can impact effectiveness and the motivation of teams, especially when they have to work close to students. That is why, at PN, we have developed an internal campaign called “self care” which promotes positive and healthy habits while working from home.
Also, a “PN IT remote working tools kit” has been sent to all our staff to remind them about accessible tools allowing them to smooth the transition from office work to online tools.
During the past few months, our teams have taken inspiring initiatives, especially PN Vietnam’s team: while continuing to have managers’ meetings, they helped each other out and teamed up during this difficult period.
They worked out solutions to boost inter-departmental support: the External Relations team and the Education team joined forces to help the Selection team with communication to find more potential candidates for the 2020 written exams.
***PNV Team meeting photo***
***Illustration of self care***
Learning by working remotely
At Passerelles numériques, we encountered various challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them was how to maintain the continuity of our development activities.
The PN Cambodia team developed E-learning content for our educational & training program. Our staff produced videos/records on various topics, such as environmental awareness, renewable energy and project management. After watching the videos, students had to answer specific questions in order to assess their understanding and to write a short essay.
Thanks to their great work, PN has developed its own online course catalogue.
Whereas PN Vietnam initiated a “Student’s teaching video contest” where each student produced a video in English relating to either a topic on one of their lessons, sport or even yoga. In so doing, students interacted with each other, practiced their English and maintained a sense of cohesion during lockdown.
*** Video course Project Management online ***
*** Students’ Video English Projects ***
Remaining students cared for during lockdown
In the Philippines, the situation was quite special as not all students were able to return home during the lockdown period. We gathered all the 61 students in Centre 2 and the PN Philippines team joined forces to keep them healthy, active and motivated while also encouraging them to keep on studying.
“The quarantine team always tries to be close to our students, accepting that this is not an easy situation for anybody, but we are doing our best to provide them with the best environment. We created a lovely, respectful and trustful atmosphere because we believe that is the only way to live this moment”. Miguel Martinez, Education Manager PNP
They were very responsible and organized keeping their rooms clean and respecting sanitary regulations: PN provided infographics and content in Cebuano and English to display all around the area.
Creative workshops, such as poster-making and creative design or yoga sessions every morning, to practice self-awareness were activities initiated and participated in by staff and students.
***The quarantine team (top picture), yoga session (bottom left), special COVID-19 cleaning (bottom right)***
Focus – our partners’ support
In this perplexing and uncertain context, we are happy to be able to count on the support and flexibility of faithful donors and partners. Among them :
- Air Liquide Foundation, one of our loyal partners, supported our students and our team in the Philippines by funding all our additional expenses linked to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Citrix decided to double, from 100% to 200% the matching gift they contribute when their employees make donations to NGOs (including PN) until the end of June. In addition to that, thanks to Roland Flouquet-Vilboux, a Citrix employee and Board Member of PN, we were given an exceptional grant to support our actions.
- Ubisoft Philippines agreed to pay us in one installment, in June, the last two installments of their grant; the first one was originally planned for June 2020 and the next for January 2021. This gives us more peace of mind in terms of our cash flow in this tense period.
- Microsoft Philanthropies decided to suspend their grant outcomes metrics for 2020. This will give us the flexibility to deploy and direct funds to the most critical-need areas.
- All the companies in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam which decided to maintain the internships for our students. We are most grateful to them because internships are a crucial part of our training program.
We would also like to warmly thank all the donors who demonstrated their generosity during our fundraising campaign launched in the context of this crisis.