Aljazeera. The crew no virus pandemic has forced many countries to close their schools its hoped to lock a social gathering will help slow be ok but is the sense learning the answer and how vulnerable are children to this virus this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im dreading obligato the Global Health crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic has led to extraordinary measures in an effort to contain the outbreak countries from south korea to the u. S. Italy to new zealand are introducing measures that are affecting hundreds of millions of people schools in a versity city mas gyms concerts have all been shut down around the world and the u. S. The cleared a National Emergency on the same day its travel ban on 26. 00 European Countries came into effect the World Health Organization says europe has now replaced china as the epicenter of the outbreak and governments are approving billions of dollars with the goal of slowing down and eventually stopping the virus well among the containment measures adopted by governments worldwide many have banned public gatherings cambodia and in the knees are the latest countries to shut down schools in their biggest cities it comes shortly after major e. U. Countries including italy france germany and spain imposed similar restrictions but the u. K. Prime minister Boris Johnson has so far refused to follow suit despite warning the public to be prepared for what he called the worst public Health Crisis for a generation. Well before we get into the impact of School Closures and the impact theyve had on children lets look at the effects of the pandemic on some of the worlds most vulnerable populations women and children in refugee camps we can speak to a doctor up a stone as vai says hes the director of the medical Operational Support units a Doctors Without Borders in greece is joining us via skype from athens thanks very much for your time with us on inside story an aljazeera a doctor a post on us. Doctors without borders a saying that the overcrowded and horrific Living Conditions in the hotspot camps on greek islands provide the perfect storm for a corona Virus Outbreak can you tell us about the conditions refugees and children are living in and why you believe that the risk of the virus spreading is so high and over image that its a situation it is very go and it goes by the order to prescribe whats going on with the rabbits camps of that made for 6178 people and guarantee that more than a quarter with those of. These people about 60 percent and women are. We talk about people where we dont have shelter people dont have access to water sanitation we talk about people a lot of access to health care when it comes to children we have a lot of children with chronic disease its a no clinic and thats because we are receiving almost every day 800 children suffering from our best records act infection skin disease are very happy ladies Living Condition that this year that they have. Children in the guidance they dont have like they dont go to school they dont have access to health care they dont have a place to pay and there are suffering from Mental Health conditions this equation isnt Perfect Place for spreading of diseases due to the fact that only these a population do not have access to health care to like a 1018. 00 the government stuck providing that access to health care so in a situation where you have overcrowding bad conditions i bet hygiene and no access to health care the possibility of the spread of a quota is there so why not i merge and see plans are put in place if there are any to protect and treat People Living in these camps in the case of an outbreak well 1st of all of england for the last 4 years for an evacuation and for that but just look at us so far these numbers that not in place so even though hes late i think its better late than never its an opportunity for the greek government and European Union to focus also on this going to people we case of another great that would be quite in danger because from one side were calling about people building schools in cote talking about people using their social activities but when you have overcrowding and in a place that is made for 2800 people you have 200000 people what you what it is you expect out of this is the congestion and i think its important yeah go ahead. No i think its important that steps are taken place closely that even the status of today evacuation of the people who to the mainland taking only informing the population about those so supporting that health care says that that will allow a better Case Management in case equation goes out of control and when youve made that call and particularly directed it to greece as well as the other countries in europe e. U. Countries you call for the evacuation of these camps whats the response that youve gotten from authorities that people who are in the gulf at the moment are just numbers so when you make a call for numbers well the limited numbers i think its important that people are going to understand beyond these numbers back shouldnt women and men who have the right the needy and health and to day if all the world communities closer to bed go to live 8 years we have to raise once more and we need to be concerned about this what it will be but what explodes and Health Without if you just in my can get in because of the car and when we discuss about public of public of these for everybody who is at the moment in that it already and youre going to get it of course european officials will say well this is all part of europes quote unquote containment policies so when you make that call for the camps to be evacuated where do you think that migrants should go to. 1st of all megan can go both in the mainland in greece by those who took an entrance and this is for 40 years that we see contained in the people based on the Political ChoiceEuropean Union has been on the stand once more that not only in front of them are just like i dont have i wish we see things that they europe but in front of people they have to treat them with dignity so they supposed to be the adequate to meet these to move them to the mainland into rather European Countries you know their presence will provide safety and safety and they need to these people is being taken away by these people they are fleeing wars and conflicts and theyre coming you know safe environment and theyre risking their lives now in front of goal of arabs and the greek government as we understand it has suspended visits and activities of nonstate organizations in these refugee camps as a preventative measure against the spread off coronavirus so how does this affect your operations well 1st of all it will affect services for the People Services or for Information Services that will use the possibility of exposure so for the time being as an asset we are there and we try to be there and also be calling to the greek government or to and to be expressing our willingness to support in their plans at the moment management of the call about a scandal be done by eyes or even people and not allow them to access the kind of care so ignoring people ignoring that that existing and ignoring overcrowding and i dont this is not a solution so initially by dealing with that it really is difficult its mostly been dealing with that all right dr opposite on his vices we thank you very much for joining us from athens thank you. Lets bring in our panel now in geneva we have david holi hes the director general of the International School of geneva its one of the worlds oldest International Schools with an enrollment of more than 4 and a half 1000 students over and over here in the u. K. We have the berry shes a Senior Advisor for Emergency Response at save the children thanks very much for your time with us on inside story welcome to you both berry let ill come over to you 1st if you can just give us a general overview of how save the children is responding to the outbreak and and how concerned you are going to zation is. As you know for save the children we operate in 130 countries around the world and so we have many staff on the ground at the moment who are fighting information especially to the k. Givens and to the ministers of education ministries of education about how we can prepare children at this time and part of that is actually working with the parents in the schools to work out if children are going to be attending school then what is the provision thats being put in place for them and thats the main thing that were concerned about right now in many countries the children who arent going to school already beginning to show signs of being really concerned about what the future hold especially for the young people who are coming up to its end stages is a time when children are trying to decide about what their future will hold and so that concern is really big for them for the younger children there is often the concern for the parents who will now care for the children if theyre not in school even here in the u. K. Even with that decision still pending theres a lot of concern for parents about how will they manage when their children often school we know that children rely on. That p. Is for support and with so much confusion right now and so many rumors about what will who and if i was that like me and my family we also want to make sure that these children have that support both from their peers but also from their families all right david as deb was saying weve seen School Closures taking place in many countries in the form of social distancing which officials are hoping can contain the spread of the disease over in geneva where you are we understand schools are now going to be closed the fact of on monday what is your take on School Closures do you think they work and will they contain this outbreak. Well i mean 1st of course i am an educator 1st and foremost and not a not a Public Health specialist but my understanding is indeed the most important step that we can take anywhere where theres an outbreak globally is indeed to to to limit the spread of the corona of Novel Coronavirus simply by literally social distancing from each other and so as much as we can do a kind of shut down that was led by the example in china. Its quite possible and the evidence suggests thats exactly what we need to be doing and so from the context of schools so that im going to take a very optimistic view here we want students to ultimately to you know learn how to learn this is a terrific learning opportunity for them and in the spirit of Student Agency its also its something that they can can create the do to contribute to this stop of this outbreak is to participate by socialized isolation essentially staying at home and ideally having their parents and of course through Online Learning have the community of educators explain to students you know why this is actually the most positive thing that they can do during this outbreak and as an educator david then what do you see are the short term consequences as well as the long term consequences of School Closures on education. Well i think i think in the very short term i can speak you know as you as you said in the beginning you know we have about 4500 children that we are responsible for here from about 145 countries because we are here in geneva serving the very International Population from the United Nations to the World Health Organization. And in the very short run again a very optimistic point of view i have rarely seen teachers learning as intensely as they have over the past 4 weeks preparing to move our learning from on campus to online so i think that the ramp up both for the teachers and for the students for this kind of learning is is a kind of Silver Lining that this is should be one of many tools in the repertoire of of all teachers and learners and now we have suddenly teachers from around the world are using this particular mechanisms Distance Learning if you will and so on the Positive Side i think were going to learn a great deal i also think that were going to dial into deeply understand what is it ultimately that schools bring to children and to communities and building a you know a terrific humanity if you will. And so that what is it that were going to be missing by not being in schools obviously all of the social and Emotional Learning thats important and i think going offline is actually going to help us understand exactly what are those things that we need to concentrate when we are together with the students when they return right deb ill be coming over to you in one moment but 1st david one more question on on this issue of education and i i indeed do appreciate the positivity i think we all need a little bit of positivity during these times but what is this going to teach us about childrens access to education and wont going online hurt some disadvantages learners who dont. Have access to online and who dont have access to technology again i dont want to overplay this this optimistic view but sometimes when Computers Come in as the kind of human proxy we realize the extraordinary limitations not so much of humans but of the structures that we have built around in this case the provision of education to all children and of course if we if we believe as you know obviously were and were in the un. Serving the un and if we do believe as we believe as our own school believes that all human beings have equal value this crisis is shedding an extraordinarily sharp focus on the extent to which we as as humans are actually behaving that way and so again taking the optimistic view what were all learning about Online Learning maybe we can transfer that to whats happening to the lives of children in refugee camps for example so that we we can provide access for students and children who are in difficult situations but its i think really in introduction to a deep understanding of what it means to be human that we are truly interconnected that we are interdependent on each other and yesterday yesterday evening when emmanuel mccollum had this great quote and he said you know the coronavirus has no passport and the coronavirus recognizes no passport and i think thats a really good message for us to be reflective to be reflective of and then with respect to children i think we also have to recognize that this crisis will and there is something they can do and to be have them be empowered i actually think they have the ability to be the super powers here not unlike our observation of grettir 3rd bergan the lead on Climate Change for some reason we dont know why but children are simply not dying. From corona virus we dont know whats why thats the case but since the last study that i read from up to mid february with about a 1000 children between the ages of 0 and 1000 testing positive for the corona virus there was 0 deaths between the ages of 0 and 9 and one between the ages of 10 and 19 and i think that it may very well be that young people could be helping out in places like Daycare Centers who sees me Nursing Homes and that sort of thing because if in fact they are the strongest in this case they could actually be able to make a contribution in a way that olds have never seen before yet heres the thing though deb just because it is certainly good news that children are not contracting the virus at the same rate adults are there not dying from aids but just because children are not likely to develop major symptoms research seems to suggest that it doesnt necessarily mean that they wont contract it and then pass it on to adults and your colleagues deb over in italy from save the children are now saying that there are more than story point 7000000 children who are missing out on schools there because of prevention measures and you brought up this point a little earlier you said the concern there is by children staying at home then they could pass on the virus to those who are elderly and more susceptible so one wonders then from your point of view a School Closure is actually work in preventing the spread. Right this is very interesting question we dont quite understand yet how kimono virus is spreading but there is a concern and we all know this font children they pick out lots of different kind of bags and maybe it doesnt affect them directly but it can because the elderly and those who are disabled are actually new bendable we are concerned that could actually spread the virus to other people if thats with their grandparents now have to take on that caring role for them because the parents are going out to work because the schools that close to an extended period i think one of the things that will also be concerned about is we have millions of children around the world who are reliant on food programs as well within schools both in the u. S. The u. K. Around the world as well we have so many children who just rely on getting one hot meal a day that helps them to keep up their energy keep at their immune system to be able to actually fight off these bacteria and viruses that are out there as well and that helps them to concentrate that helps them to feel better and so the pressure is now that will come on families as children have school the financial pressures the emotional concerns the ability to actually then you have to increase the bills that you pay and so save the children is concerned about that Global Impact on the family who are already bendable parents working extremely hard to provide for their children and so many things that are so what extent do you think Boris Johnsons decision not to close schools in the u. K. Is based on economic considerations. Im sure thats part of the consideration knowing that many of the workforce many children have both their parents currently working and there are more need for that and so theyre going to have to make a decision about how all parents going to be able to take care of their children is one parent going to be a stay at home how are those decisions made well jobs become prioritized as well and so im sure that is a factor thats coming in i mean i wish we didnt have more information about how this these decisions have been made it sounds like from the statement that Boris Johnson made he said that the scientific advice is that it will do more harm than good at this time when referring to the closer of schools why do you think advisers in the u. K. Are advising different measures to their counterparts over in europe where weve seen School Closures in geneva where david is in france and other places yet. Yeah i would love to know what that decision was i think one of the things that the way that i talk to schools right now and as our colleagues talk in schools and parents right now is if we do have this window even if its just a couple more days start putting plans in place on how are you going to actually luna babbitts how is your Childs School going to communicate with you all your children going to have online classes there seems to be right now i know from my nieces and nephews at the moment theyre looming for all the schools that are going to do online classes for the younger children though those things being put into place so if you have the opportunity as a parent right now to go into schools talk to the teachers about whats the curriculum that the children following right now so you can follow that up at home as we understand more about the way the government is working its a time for parents to be proactive as information changes every day that we find out about how can we take care of those Educational Needs and the why do needs well off children that happen when children go to school and thats really important to think about how are children going to keep connected to their friends those people ation ships how are you going to make sure that children are in a safe environment and they being safeguarded at the moment lets not make children more than rebel as well as parents have maybe have to face in difficult decisions about which to leave their children at this time if they need to continue to work theyve had i say you nodding along with what they had to say would you like to add on to that and also what would be your advice as an educator to parents who are facing some hard decisions right now. I mean its i know were talking about a current of virus but with there was sharing is in some ways more of a societal philosophical observation its quite extraordinary to think that the decision on closing schools or not closing schools is based on whether the children and nutrition may be affected that says more about Society Today than about the coronavirus that families are unable to provide for their children theres a theres some other structural things again as i said that i think the coronaviruses is pointing towards you know with respect to to moving online again i think if we are all citizens and the best thinking is that we need to socially isolate then the schools are part of that overall decision its not a separate decision i dont live in the u. K. But i am having trouble understanding lets say the decision of Boris Johnson to separate the work that needs to be done to stop the spread of the virus from the decision about closing schools that only has to come together in my view in my view and my understanding as far as children and parents are concerned i think that probably the most important thing is to give your children really regardless of the age but of course age appropriate some real calm reassuring connectivity and not try to hide this from them share with exactly what is known about the coronavirus go frequently to websites like the World Health Organization website for the public websites that are available from most Public Health services around the world been going to them of course daily in my work and im impressed by the videos they have you can even go to the World Health Organization and take a course for 3 hours long on the coronavirus and in my view. If you do that with your child thats very empowering and although i dont know the numbers i suspect that the ratio of time spent on social media relative to the amount of time spent looking at web sites like the w. H. O. And deeply educating yourself about about this virus if you could make the ratio such that its higher on these other sites its really protective of your child and if you if youre acting in a kind of a way thats. Responding to social media myth myths and so when the not teaching your children to look at facts look at reason to look at science and frankly to show a great deal of love an empathy. That thats what parents need to be doing today. You know and i know this is a big big thing now because its a now a pandemic but will we will either you know humanity will will fail at this test or survive it this test or become stronger and i think that if we take the orientation that how can we take this to become stronger to Work Together thats what we should do with this coronavirus it certainly is a big test ahead on that now to have to leave it there thank you very much for joining us from Geneva David Holly and deb berry joining us from dover we really appreciate your time and we also had a pulse those bases who i spoke to earlier on and thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our web site al jazeera dot com for further discussion you can go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at aging inside story for myself and the whole team in london and thanks for watching but i for now. I. A good women in programming from international filmmakers. Play aljazeera sets the stage digitally to appear will be the life of the lawyers the life of the nines dead everybody is their Global Expert in getting were going to let the planet go to ruin because were not doing its obvious things open your eyes to an alternative view of the world today on aljazeera. In 2014 and aljazeera investigation revealed how anger and fear fear will be a bone a crisis that ravaged west africa we asked our lives they didnt allow you know us with them knowing we are dying 3 years on we speak to the filmmaker the one thing that spread a board and caused that devastation on a sphere that was born out of ignorance rewind liberia living with a bow on aljazeera. With a plummeting birthrate and families moving to the cities south koreas rural schools are shutting down one on one east meets the grandmas who is saving these schools finally getting an education on aljazeera. Explaining terms of policy towards africa its the Challenging Mission such as secretary of state mike pompei on a 5 day visit to the continent the visit comes after the white house an ounce to a travel ban on 4 african nations and a withdrawal of troops from west africa. Think it just demonstrates the for. The fall of the us and for me station. Despite tribes travel ban being extended at the end of february to take in the 4 african countries including the continents biggest economy insisted that the u. S. Is open for business. Pulled the number told stories from asia and the pacific on aljazeera. Sealing off the philippines capital checkpoints and curfews across the city of 12000000. 00 as it tries to contain the coronavirus. Australia orders all arrivals into isolation for 2 weeks the latest countries were imposed tougher restrictions. Youre watching on 20 live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up airport chaos in the u. S. With thousands queuing for new screening measures and airlines planning major cuts to their shuttles. Once they mail