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2 Minute Speech on Covid-19 (CoronaVirus) for Students

The year, 2019, saw the discovery of a previously unknown coronavirus illness, Covid-19 . The Coronavirus has affected the way we go about our everyday lives. This pandemic has devastated millions of people, either unwell or passed away due to the sickness. The most common symptoms of this viral illness include a high temperature, a cough, bone pain, and difficulties with the respiratory system. In addition to these symptoms, patients infected with the coronavirus may also feel weariness, a sore throat, muscular discomfort, and a loss of taste or smell.

2 Minute Speech on Covid-19 (CoronaVirus) for Students

10 Lines Speech on Covid-19 for Students

The Coronavirus is a member of a family of viruses that may infect their hosts exceptionally quickly.

Humans created the Coronavirus in the city of Wuhan in China, where it first appeared.

The first confirmed case of the Coronavirus was found in India in January in the year 2020.

Protecting ourselves against the coronavirus is essential by covering our mouths and noses when we cough or sneeze to prevent the infection from spreading.

We must constantly wash our hands with antibacterial soap and face masks to protect ourselves.

To ensure our safety, the government has ordered the whole nation's closure to halt the virus's spread.

The Coronavirus forced all our classes to be taken online, as schools and institutions were shut down.

Due to the coronavirus, everyone was instructed to stay indoors throughout the lockdown.

During this period, I spent a lot of time playing games with family members.

Even though the cases of COVID-19 are a lot less now, we should still take precautions.

Short 2-Minute Speech on Covid 19 for Students

The coronavirus, also known as Covid - 19 , causes a severe illness. Those who are exposed to it become sick in their lungs. A brand-new virus is having a devastating effect throughout the globe. It's being passed from person to person via social interaction.

The first instance of Covid - 19 was discovered in December 2019 in Wuhan, China . The World Health Organization proclaimed the covid - 19 pandemic in March 2020. It has now reached every country in the globe. Droplets produced by an infected person's cough or sneeze might infect those nearby.

The severity of Covid-19 symptoms varies widely. Symptoms aren't always present. The typical symptoms are high temperatures, a dry cough, and difficulty breathing. Covid - 19 individuals also exhibit other symptoms such as weakness, a sore throat, muscular soreness, and a diminished sense of smell and taste.

Vaccination has been produced by many countries but the effectiveness of them is different for every individual. The only treatment then is to avoid contracting in the first place. We can accomplish that by following these protocols—

Put on a mask to hide your face. Use soap and hand sanitiser often to keep germs at bay.

Keep a distance of 5 to 6 feet at all times.

Never put your fingers in your mouth or nose.

Long 2-Minute Speech on Covid 19 for Students

As students, it's important for us to understand the gravity of the situation regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it has on our communities and the world at large. In this speech, I will discuss the real-world examples of the effects of the pandemic and its impact on various aspects of our lives.

Impact on Economy | The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global economy. We have seen how businesses have been forced to close their doors, leading to widespread job loss and economic hardship. Many individuals and families have been struggling to make ends meet, and this has led to a rise in poverty and inequality.

Impact on Healthcare Systems | The pandemic has also put a strain on healthcare systems around the world. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients, and healthcare workers have been stretched to their limits. This has highlighted the importance of investing in healthcare systems and ensuring that they are prepared for future crises.

Impact on Education | The pandemic has also affected the education system, with schools and universities being closed around the world. This has led to a shift towards online learning and the use of technology to continue education remotely. However, it has also highlighted the digital divide, with many students from low-income backgrounds facing difficulties in accessing online learning.

Impact on Mental Health | The pandemic has not only affected our physical health but also our mental health. We have seen how the isolation and uncertainty caused by the pandemic have led to an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression. It's important that we take care of our mental health and support each other during this difficult time.

Real-life Story of a Student

John is a high school student who was determined to succeed despite the struggles brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

John's school closed down in the early days of the pandemic, and he quickly found himself struggling to adjust to online learning. Without the structure and support of in-person classes, John found it difficult to stay focused and motivated. He also faced challenges at home, as his parents were both essential workers and were often not available to help him with his schoolwork.

Despite these struggles, John refused to let the pandemic defeat him. He made a schedule for himself, to stay on top of his assignments and set goals for himself. He also reached out to his teachers for additional support, and they were more than happy to help.

John also found ways to stay connected with his classmates and friends, even though they were physically apart. They formed a study group and would meet regularly over Zoom to discuss their assignments and provide each other with support.

Thanks to his hard work and determination, John was able to maintain good grades and even improved in some subjects. He graduated high school on time, and was even accepted into his first-choice college.

John's story is a testament to the resilience and determination of students everywhere. Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, he was able to succeed and achieve his goals. He shows us that with hard work, determination, and support, we can overcome even the toughest of obstacles.

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Global Citizen — with support from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and the World Health Organization (WHO) — launched the year-long global campaign Recovery Plan for the World on Tuesday to help end COVID-19 for all.

Featuring artist, songwriter, and activist Billie Eilish, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the WHO’s Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Global Citizen Ambassador Hugh Jackman , and many more, the special media event set the stage for the world to unite to end the pandemic and get the world back on track to meet the United Nations’ Global Goals .

The Recovery Plan for the World campaign has received international support from every level of society with more than 35 leaders representing government, philanthropy, and life-saving organizations pledging to ensure no one is left behind during this pandemic.

Artists and leaders alike stated that the world can only beat this pandemic if together we unite to protect vulnerable populations, and urgently fund the ACT-Accelerator to ensure vaccines and testing remain ready and available to everyone, everywhere — especially those in countries with weaker health systems. Messages of support also called on the world to ensure every child has access to education, that we respond urgently to the climate emergency, and strive toward an equitable world.

“This is not an act of charity, this is in all of our interest ... There is no safety without equity,” said Hugh Evans, co-founder and CEO of Global Citizen.

Here’s a list of the most inspirational quotes from global leaders ready to take action to get the world back on track in support of the Recovery Plan for the World .

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

"Global Citizen has been a leading force in bringing together civil society and the private sector. We need citizens of the world to mobilize again. We need out-of-the-box thinking, and using all means available. This is why I’m proud to support, as president of the European Commission, the new Global Citizen campaign called 'Recovery Plan for the World.'"

I'm proud to support @GlblCtzn 's campaign, A Recovery Plan for the World. Together, we’ll overcome this pandemic, prepare to face future ones, reduce the impact on the vulnerable and address root causes. Join us! https://t.co/r5Lt7SrpIg — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 23, 2021

Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa

“South Africa is proud to be one of the supporting countries for the five-point Recovery Plan by Global Citizen under the patronage of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and in partnership with Italy, the G20 Chair. The urgency to get a vaccine to everyone, everywhere cannot be underestimated. As a country we will be joining efforts to help the world recover better by ending the pandemic as a priority, addressing food security and hunger, getting all our children back to school, addressing climate change and protecting the most marginalized. We must ensure that no one is left behind.”

Alongside these efforts to overcome the pandemic, we must work together to end hunger, promote education and the resumption of learning, and protect the planet. By doing so, we will be contributing to a fair, just and inclusive recovery. https://t.co/y9iyu9Kgk6 — Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 #StaySafe (@CyrilRamaphosa) February 23, 2021

Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain

“We are at the beginning of a year with plenty of challenges: Along with the pandemic, we cannot forget to protect the planet, fight hunger, foster education worldwide, or promote equality. These will also lead the activities of Global Citizen in 2021. This is why Spain wants to support Global Citizen in our common efforts to make this world better every day. I invite you all to raise your voice and take action together to support change.”

Emmanuel Macron, President of France

"The emergence of new variants, which degrade the efficacy of some vaccines, only confirms the initial intuition behind the ACT-A initiative: This pandemic is being fought on a global scale, to the extent that our own health security depends on the rapid access of poor countries to protective devices, tests, and vaccines. These are all bulwarks against the virus. International solidarity and health security go hand in hand, which is why I have proposed the establishment of a mechanism for sharing doses with our African partners."

Volkan Bozkır, President of the United Nations General Assembly 

"During this pandemic, the most vulnerable have been the hardest hit ... We must increase our resilience. We must work together and take an integrated approach to health, hunger, climate, and equity crisis — no one is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe."

Progress toward achieving the #GlobalGoals hasn't just stalled — it’s reversed. That's why in 2021, we're joining @GlblCtzn to bring the world together to support the Recovery Plan for the World. #WorldRecoveryPlan https://t.co/H0TEXq8fi4 — UN GA President (@UN_PGA) February 23, 2021

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand

"COVID-19 highlights how truly interdependent we all are. How reliant we are on cooperation, communication, and compassion to successfully combat the virus. It highlights how important it is that we work together for a sustainable recovery that delivers for our economies and our planet.”

Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

“We are encouraged by the rollout of safe and effective vaccines, but the truth is simple: No person is safe until all — everyone, everywhere — are safe, and no country is safe until all countries are safe. Only by working together can we ensure that no one is left behind. Only by working together can we recover better and build a world where everyone thrives in peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet. It is possible, together.”

Global Citizens—it’s time to reignite our efforts to keep the promise of the #SDGs and that starts by overcoming the #COVID19 pandemic. We need your help to make sure everyone everywhere has access to vaccines through COVAX. By working together—no one will be left behind. pic.twitter.com/wIhGkKGYjC — Amina J Mohammed (@AminaJMohammed) February 23, 2021

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization

"COVID-19 has threatened the lives and livelihoods of everyone on the planet. To respond, we must take several urgent actions. The only way that we'll be able to recover better, together, is by defeating the virus everywhere through universal access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics. At the same time, we must mobilize response and recovery aid to address the pandemic's significant socioeconomic consequences, such as disruptions to food and education systems. I commend Global Citizen for raising awareness on these issues and playing an important role in promoting global solidarity to counter the pandemic.”

Don't miss: A Recovery Plan for the World - The Recover Better Together event organized by WHO, @EU_Commission & @GlblCtzn 🕔 23 Feb 2021, 17:00 CET 📺 WHO Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube channels 👉 https://t.co/jt518oBvAb — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 23, 2021

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

“The COVID-19 pandemic once again reminds us: Global crises require global solutions. We must act together to end the pandemic. And we must not forget those who are affected by extreme poverty and hunger. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are, and will remain, our compass for a better world. This is why, in 2021, Germany will continue to actively work toward the achievement of the Global Goals.”

#ThankYou Chancellor #Merkel "We must act together to end the pandemic. And we must not forget those who are affected by extreme poverty and hunger." Global Citizens agree, and we're ready to get to work. @GermanyDiplo #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/AQBom7o8NI — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium

“As a country of vaccine producers, Belgium knows first-hand how important they are. That is why we are stepping up our support to make the COVID-19 vaccines available worldwide. We need to assure everybody is safe if we want to recover better together — an aim I share with this campaign from Global Citizen.”

. @alexanderdecroo , Global Citizens agree - the world has truly come together, and to beat this pandemic we must leave no one behind! #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/635UJJvKGc — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway

“No one is safe until everyone is safe. The recent mutations prove this beyond doubt. This is not only about health; it is also about the economy. The investments needed in vaccines are considerable, yet they are minimal compared to the costs of economic downturn.”

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia

"We live in times when solidarity and international cooperation are needed more than ever. The ongoing pandemic has irreversibly changed our lives. It has touched everyone, but the impact on the most disadvantaged and vulnerable is especially dire. Multi-stakeholder action is vital, not only to ensure access to vaccines for all, but also to recover better together, while promoting equity and sustainable development. This is why I offer my and Croatia's strong support to the Global Citizen campaign and its five-point Recovery Plan , launched in partnership with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the World Health Organization. We look forward to continuing to work together at European and global levels."

"Multi-stakeholder action is vital - not only to ensure access to vaccines for all but also to recover better together, while promoting equity and sustainable development." #ThankYou @AndrejPlenkovic ! #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/UNa86Mn6fA — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines endorses the 2021 Global Citizen's Recovery Plan for the World campaign. We must work together in solidarity for equitable vaccine access, to build immunity everywhere, and to enhance resilience and climate compliance."

"We must work together in solidarity for equitable vaccine access, to build immunity everywhere, and to enhance resilience and climate compliance" Thank you @ComradeRalph ! Global Citizens are on board. #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/nfv8yTWsp9 — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal

“Promoting global health is one of the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. All have to be equal in a universal, fair, and quality access to health. Universal and affordable access to vaccines is essential if we are to resume our lives in full. The Portuguese Presidency will support all efforts towards that goal, in initiatives such as COVAX and the ACT-Accelerator. Vaccination against the virus must go hand in hand with another vaccine, depending only on us: the vaccine of action! We cannot simply wait for the crisis to pass. There is no time to lose. It's time to act!”

#ThankYou @antoniocostapm ! "Vaccination against the virus must go hand in hand with another vaccine..the vaccine of action! We cannot simply wait for the crisis to pass. There is no time to lose. It's time to act!" #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/Ih46mutKqx — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore

“Global solidarity is essential to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Our collective efforts to keep supply chains open, and ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines, are the first steps toward a more sustainable recovery for all.”

. @leehsienloong #Thankyou for your support! Global solidarity IS essential to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/fyfl0S3RDK — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Micheál Martin, Taoiseach of Ireland

“The UN Sustainable Development Goals are our roadmap. Today, I can assure you that Ireland is playing its part — on the UN Security Council, as part of Team Europe, and as a solid and reliable bilateral partner — in global efforts to recover better together.”

"It is ambition that is essential for our future." @MichealMartinTD Global Citizens agree! #WorldRecoveryPlan pic.twitter.com/p5KcbLeoxQ — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Antony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State

"The most urgent problem we face right now is the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to get it under control, and we need to invest in global health to stop pandemics like this from happening ever again."

"The most urgent problem we face right now is the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to get it under control, and we need to invest in global health to stop pandemics like this from happening ever again." ⭕️Thank you @SecBlinken !! pic.twitter.com/V7w12O4e8X — Global Citizen Impact (@GlblCtznImpact) February 23, 2021

Robert Abela, Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta

“During the current COVID-19 pandemic, Malta has striven to ensure that all people requiring medical attention receive the necessary health care services.. Nevertheless, the world cannot return to normal if the pandemic is not controlled everywhere. Malta thus reiterates the call to foster a climate of cooperation and trust between states, to collectively take action to implement the five goals of the Recovery Plan for the World  effort.”

Learn More About the Recovery Plan for the World

A true recovery from COVID-19 can only happen if everyone, everywhere has access to testing, treatments, and vaccines. Now, more than ever,  the voices of Global Citizens matter . 

Eradicating poverty requires international cooperation, solidarity, and a shared understanding in order to overcome the systems and beliefs that create it. On Tuesday, Global Citizen launched the Recovery Plan for the World  as a roadmap to prosperity and recovery during and following the pandemic, prioritizing health, hunger, education, environment, and equity.

In 2021, we have a chance to make history. Will you join us?

Demand Equity

18 Inspiring Quotes From World Leaders in Support of the 'Recovery Plan for the World'

Feb. 23, 2021

One Year Into The COVID-19 Pandemic, Six Stories That Inspire Hope

March 11 marks  one year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic . While the past year has been  tremendously challenging , there have been remarkable stories of human resilience, ingenuity, and creativity.

On this grim anniversary, we wanted to bring you stories from around the world that inspire. The following six stories are not billion-dollar projects, but the tales of everyday entrepreneurship and innovation happening on a small scale with a big impact. The World Bank Group is continuing to support the poorest countries as they look to a build a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive recovery.

1. Lao PDR: Unlocking the Full Potential of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise

The World Bank

The village of Phailom is situated about an hour’s drive outside the capital, Vientiane. In recent years village’s network of talented woodworking artisans have become renowned suppliers of souvenirs to tourists wishing to remember their visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. 

Among these artisans is Vorachith Keoxayayong, who has been continuing this village’s long tradition of wood sculpture since he was a child.  

His art is not just a hobby, however. His company, Vorachith Wood Carving, employees 23 people – providing meaningful and sustainable employment in his community.  Small enterprises, like his, as well as medium-sized enterprises account for more than 80 percent of employment and some 94 percent of all registered firms in Lao PDR, according to the  Lao Statistics  Bureau. 

With the onset of COVID-19 and decreased tourism, the artisans of Phailom — like other small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Lao PDR — have been hit hard. 

The pandemic has created new challenges for these enterprises, many of which were already struggling for other reasons.  Despite their highly-refined skills and popularity with tourists, Mr. Vorachith and other entrepreneurs behind SMEs across the country struggle to access credit, and this limits their ability to expand operations and grow their employee base. 

The situation has started to change, however. The World Bank Group’s  SME Access to Finance Project  has unlocked formal funding that was once out of reach for many of these firms. 

“In the past, expanding was tough as we had to take out informal loans with very high interest rates. I feel much more at ease borrowing money from a bank,” explained Mr. Vorachith. 

While their economic recovery will be a long process, the World Bank and the Lao government are building on the success of the SME Access to Finance project, forging pathways to help small companies weather the effects of the pandemic and get their firms back on solid financial ground as travel restrictions are gradually lifted.

Read more .

2. Costa Rica: Women Firefighters on the Frontlines of Resilient Recovery 

Melissa Aviles, a forest brigadista from Costa Rica. Photo: Courtesy of FONAFIFO/MINAE

As Costa Rica – like countries the world over – looks to mount a sustainable, resilient recovery after COVID-19, the country’s brigadistas will be on the frontlines.

These female firefighters are gaining increasing recognition for fighting stereotypes just as effectively as they fight the country’s pervasive forest fires.  Protecting the country's forests is a central to Costa Rica's efforts to promote sustainability and tackle climate change.

“There is always that myth or macho thought that a woman cannot grab a machete, a back pump, a leaf blower, that she can't go up a big hill,” says one brigadista, Ana Luz Diaz.

Women in Costa Rica play key roles in conservation and the sustainability of forests and farmland. But they – as is the case in many countries – face gender stereotypes and disproportionately burdensome caregiving responsibilities. These factors can limit their ability to play bigger roles in green activities and projects.

However, efforts are underway to address these disparities, and better recognize the unique ways that men and women contribute to efforts related to the environment, forestry, and climate action.

“I want to be someone, to be seen, not be invisible. I want both men and women to see each other and the support that we too can give,” said another brigadista, Melissa Aviles.

In 2019, Costa Rica, with funding from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a World Bank Group program, developed a Gender Action Plan (GAP) that supports the country’s efforts to reduce emissions stemming from forest degradation and deforestation.

The GAP will play a central role in shaping Costa Rica’s recovery into one that is not just sustainable and resilient, but inclusive as well, and the country is sharing its experience and knowledge with others so that they may benefit as well.

3. Pakistan: Prioritizing Patients by Phone

The World Bank

Pakistan’s rural population, like so many people around the world, struggles to find affordable access to health services.  Journeys into populated cities to seek care are costly – especially when multiple trips are required. And when the pandemic struck these problems were magnified.

But what if healthcare could be made more accessible? What if routine services could be conducted by phone?

That’s where Pakistani entrepreneur Maliha Khalid enters the story.  She and her team run Doctory, a hotline service that helps patients avoid the multiple referrals often required for treatment by connecting people to the right doctor immediately.  The innovative company, alongside six others, beat out 2,400 other applicants to win the World Bank Group’s  SDGs & Her  competition last year.

When the pandemic reached Pakistan, the Doctory team sprang into action, launching Pakistan’s National COVID-19 Helpline, connecting people across the country to fast, high-quality care – saving them countless amounts of time and money.

4. Kenya: Creating Sustainable Jobs for Youth

Credit: Shutterstock

When the Kenyan government implemented lockdown measures to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the economic side effects were felt especially by poor communities.

Finding opportunity in crisis, the government created the National Hygiene Program – known colloquially as Kazi Mtaani (loosely translated as “jobs in our hood”) – which finds meaningful employment for the most vulnerable, especially youth, in jobs that improve their environments.

These programs include bush clearance, fumigation, disinfection, street cleaning, garbage collection, and drainage clearance.  

Byron Mashu, a resident of the Kibera settlement, express his gratitude for the program, saying that it allowed youth to “fend for our families and settle our bills, but it is also ensuring that young people are less idle as they are engaged at work during the day which has significantly minimized crime rates in our area”.  

The program was kickstarted through World Bank Group’s Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project, which has seen jobs created across 27 settlements in eight counties across the country.  

Don Dante, a youth leader in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga settlement, told the Bank that as a result of the program, “We have seen the reduction of petty crimes and dependency on other people and our environs are clean”.

Given the project’s success and popularity, the Kenyan government is working to expand it using its own financing – extending jobs to 283,210 workers across 47 counties.

5. Greece: Supporting Small Food Producers and Supplying the Vulnerable

Melina Taprantzi arguably has more experience with economic crises than most.

The Greek entrepreneur lived through the Greek Financial crisis, witnessing suffering and rising poverty. From those experiences she decided to dedicate her work towards addressing social needs.  

Her business, Wise Greece, connects small-scale food producers with those in need by providing a six kilogram box of basic food and supplies. Melina won the SDGs and Her competition in 2020.

When COVID-19 entered the scene, Wise Greece didn’t sit idly by.  Instead, they moved quickly to partner with multinational companies to provide these boxes not just to those in need, but also to the elderly and vulnerable who can’t leave their homes.

Since 2013, the company has contributed some 50 tons of food supplies.  During the pandemic alone, it has made at least 6 tons available to vulnerable communities.

6. Chad: Kickstarting Sanitizer Production

The World Bank

With the pandemic sparking unprecedented demand for sanitizing products, supply chains around the world were hammered.

“People waited in line sometimes for hours to procure the alcohol-based sanitizer,” reported the World Bank’s Edmond Dingamhoudou in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. “Some went so far as to cross the border to stock up in Kousseri, a Cameroonian city some 20 kilometers from N’Djamena on the opposite bank of the Logone River.”

With these critical supplies difficult to find, officials and scientists came together in record time. A laboratory constructed with support of the International Development Assocation was repurposed for the quick and effective manufacturing of gel hand sanitizer – launching Chad’s first ever local production of the product.

As of mid-April 2020, the facility was able to produce approximately 900 liters of hand sanitizer per day, with 20 to 25 technicians overseeing production, quality control, and packaging.

  • The World Bank Group’s Response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) Pandemic
  • Infographic: World Bank Group COVID-19 Crisis Response
  • World Bank Group COVID-19 Crisis Response Approach Paper

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Student Voices

June 20, 2021, 10:49 p.m.

High school senior delivers "Class of COVID" graduation speech

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Editor's note: Anne Laurie Pierre is one of three students from Massachusetts profiled in " COVID and the Classroom ,” a project by Boston public media outlet GBH News. The Everett High senior lost her father to COVID-19 and helped her mother battle both the virus and leukemia. The project's finale “ Class of COVID " debuts on Monday, June 21 at 7:30-pm ET. Pierre will join a panel discussion following the half hour retrospective, which streams for a national audience on Facebook live and YouTube . Read Pierre's high school's graduation speech here:

2021 Warriors

Good evening class of 2021, administrators, faculty, and loved ones. My name is Anne Laurie Pierre and I am the senior president here at Everett High school. Before I begin, I’d like for everyone here to give a big round of applause to the teachers, school faculty, city leaders and everyone who had a hand in our curriculum, educational funds, and activities.

I am truly honored to be standing here in front of the class who I refer to as Warriors, so please give YOURSELVES a round of applause.

The years 2019 through 2021 have been a blessing yet a curse. People have lost opportunities, homes, jobs, and even loved ones in a span of a couple of months while being forced to stay indoors with our thoughts, and it was hard. It was mentally exhausting. Throughout that time, some people coped by picking up a new hobby, such as making jewelry, art pieces and so much more, but also many people battled with their inner thoughts and family circumstances causing them to lose all types of motivation, develop depression, and even self-destruct.

...we acknowledge that Black people shouldn’t be killed for jogging, wearing a hoodie, sleeping in their own homes or just SIMPLY BEING BLACK.

And it amazes me how the same individuals I’m talking about are here today, sitting right in front of me ready to step into the next chapter of their lives, still fighting on the battlefield. YOU should be very proud of yourself, my peers.

We were hit with this unexpectancy before we even had the chance to put up our armor, and it was perplexing— but the same warrior mentality we had throughout this whole pandemic to keep pushing and grinding is the same mentality we will need when we enter the real world.

As a Black activist, I can say that I am truly proud of my generation— the millennials and the Xennials, might think that we were a reckless and rebellious generation and I agree, we are, but that’s only because we know our worth, we acknowledge that Black people shouldn’t be killed for jogging, wearing a hoodie, sleeping in their own homes or just SIMPLY BEING BLACK. We understand that innocent Asian elderly shouldn’t be beaten or mistreated for a pandemic they had NOTHING to do with—

Because of OUR voice we are seeing the change that should have been in place a LONG time ago and that is something we should be proud of.

Before I end my speech, I would like to present a gift to Everett public schools on behalf of the class of 2021. You have been supportive, thoughtful and unwavering in your support for us.

I’d like to thank the teachers and leaders in my life that pushed me to be the best version of myself. Thank you for always having faith in me and speaking success into my life. Your words are something I will take with me to Howard and the rest of my path.

Some people ask me how am I still pushing through despite all the challenges I’ve faced and I’m telling you now, it’s by the Grace of the lovely God that I serve. I can promise you that if it wasn’t for the strength that He gives me— my lovely mother, a survivor, wouldn’t be amongst the others in the crowd today. That’s a true warrior right there.

RELATED: Mom Coming Home (Anne Laurie Pierre Video Diary)

So today I ask you all to be Warriors, be conquerors of your trials and tribulations, and rejoice in your victory here today.

Finally, I’d like to close out by saying, JUSTICE FOR Breonna Taylor, Junito Falcon, Daunte Wright, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Jacob Azevedo, Vincent Chin, Oluwatoyin Salau, Mikayla Miller, and many other lives that were lost due to discrimination of race, gender, and religion. Congratulations Class of 2021. Thank you.

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The novel coronavirus, first detected at the end of 2019, has caused a global pandemic.

The Coronavirus Crisis

Reflections on a lost senior year with hope for the future.

Diane Adame

Elissa

Elissa Nadworny

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

East Ascension High School Valedictorian Emma Cockrum at her home in Prairieville, La., on June 1, 2020. Emily Kask for NPR hide caption

East Ascension High School Valedictorian Emma Cockrum at her home in Prairieville, La., on June 1, 2020.

Emma Cockrum was in her second week of quarantine when her father discovered an old bike behind their house.

And that bicycle turned out to be a gift: With school closed at East Ascension High School in Gonzales, La., bike riding for Emma became a way of coping with the loss of the rest of her senior year.

"I would say the first two to three weeks we were out of school, I was not the most fun person to be around. I was a ticking time bomb," says the 18-year-old, who's headed to Northwestern State University in the fall. "One minute, I would be fine and dandy, and then the next minute, I would be crying."

As she pedaled through her neighborhood each day, those bike rides forced her to stop and take in the world around her — and they became the inspiration behind these words in her valedictorian speech:

"I got to see life happening. I saw families spending time together, like children playing basketball on their driveways, or fathers teaching their own kids to ride bikes. When we stop to observe our surroundings, we are oftentimes provided with new perspectives on our situations."

Dear Class Of 2020: Graduation Messages From Front-Line Workers

Dear Class Of 2020: Graduation Messages From Frontline Workers

The coronavirus pandemic has caused many high school graduations to be replaced with virtual, drive-in and other alternative ceremonies. And so, the tradition of valedictorians and salutatorians addressing their classmates at this huge moment in their young lives is a little different this year.

NPR spoke with a few student leaders about their speeches and how a not-so-typical senior year inspired their words for the class of 2020.

Emma Cockrum

Valedictorian, East Ascension High School, Gonzales, La.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

East Ascension High School Valedictorian Emma Cockrum with her dog Hercules in front of her old play house at her home in Prairieville, La. Emily Kask for NPR hide caption

East Ascension High School Valedictorian Emma Cockrum with her dog Hercules in front of her old play house at her home in Prairieville, La.

Aside from her bike rides, Cockrum was also inspired by a few words from Sol Rexius, a pastor at The Salt Company Church of Ames in Iowa. She says Rexius uses the analogy of a dump truck full of dirt being emptied all over their senior year. Here's how she put it in her address to her classmates:

This may sound harsh, but it's not untrue to how some of us feel. It is easy to feel buried by our circumstances. However, he [the pastor] goes on to paint a picture of a farmer planting a seed. Did the farmer bury the seed? Well, yes, but he also planted it. Instead of feeling buried by our situation, we must realize that the pain and heartache that has been piled upon us is not meant to bury, but to plant us in a way that will allow us to grow and prosper into who we are meant to be. As you stop and take in the circumstances around you, will you allow yourself to be buried or to be planted? 
As we move on from this place and embark on the next big journey of life, whether that's college, the workforce or something else, life will at some point begin to feel like it's going too fast. My bike rides have taught me a new way to handle these times because they allow me to exercise and be among the beauty of nature, which are things that cause me to slow down. When life becomes too much like a race for you, it may not be riding a bike. It may be playing an instrument, sport, creating art or something else entirely. I encourage you to find that one thing that allows you to unwind and refocus when life seems too much to handle.  Now, I'd like to take you on a bike ride with me as we share this experience together in our faces, something that is both exciting and terrifying: freedom. We sit atop our bikes of life as high school graduates and now have the freedom to choose who we are and where we will go.  

Salutatorian, Paducah Tilghman High School, Paducah, Ky.

Chua says he wanted to make his speech something that would provide some happiness to people, even if only be for a little while. Before offering some advice, he began his speech with a personal take on the famous line from Forrest Gump : "Life is like a box of chocolates."

"Life is like a fistful of Sour Patch Kids," Chua says in his speech, recorded on video from his home in Paducah. "Right now things are sour, but eventually they will turn sweet."

The sharing of knowledge is just as important as receiving it because, without sharing, knowledge has no value. The first piece of advice I want to share is to always try new things and challenge yourself, even if you think it's a bad idea in the process. Always attempt to answer questions and solve problems. Find new ways to do the same tasks. Wear all white to black out. Take that ridiculously difficult course load. Buy that oversized $30 pack of UNO that is literally impossible to shuffle just so you can say you own it. Just spend responsibly, kids. All in all, just make life spicy. Make life something you want to reminisce on.  The second lesson is simple. Just be nice to people. Trust sows the seeds of freedom, and a little respect truly does go a long way. It could even solve a few of the world's problems. You never know when you'll need to fall back on someone, so build strong connections early and maintain them.  Lastly, the phrase "I don't know" is powerful. By admitting ignorance, you are asking to learn. Inevitably, I know I will come upon a hard stop, and I hope that when I do, I'll remind myself to pause and ask for a hand of enlightenment, so that I might come back from that hard experience knowing more than when I started. Life rarely hands you a golden opportunity, so make one. Just as the tornado creates a path in the wake of its destruction, this class of 2020 will, too, create their own, hopefully without the whole destruction part.

Kimani Ross

Valedictorian, Lake City High School, Lake City, S.C.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

Valedictorian Kimani Ross leads the Lake City High School parade through downtown Lake City, SC. Taylor Adams/SCNow hide caption

Ross says she wanted to remind her class that they can get through any obstacle. She recalls the adversities they've gone through together — like the death of a beloved coach — and the people that doubted her.

Ross says she'll attend North Carolina A&T State University in the fall, where she plans to study nursing.

Many people didn't, and probably still don't believe that I have worked hard enough to be where I am now. I've had people tell me that I don't deserve to be where I am now, and that really made me contemplate, "Do I really deserve this? Should I just give up and let them win?" But look at where I am now. I'm glad that I didn't stop. I'm glad that I didn't let them get to me.  I'm especially glad that I earned this position so that all of the other little girls around Lake City and surrounding areas can look and say that they want to be just like me. I want those little girls to know that they can do it if no one else believes in them, I will always believe in them. Classmates, when we're out in the real world, don't get discouraged about the obstacles that will approach you. As Michelle Obama once said, you should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it is important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

Valedictorian Kimani Ross and her family at the Lake City graduation in Lake City, SC. Taylor Adams/SCNow hide caption

Valedictorian Kimani Ross and her family at the Lake City graduation in Lake City, SC.

Lindley Andrew

Salutatorian, Jordan-Matthews High School, Siler City, N.C.

Andrew says her mind flooded with high school memories as she tried to write her speech. This inspired her to get her fellow seniors involved. With the help of her class, she strung together a timeline of national events and local victories.

"Sometimes it's the small, seemingly pointless experiences that leave the most lasting and impactful memories," she says.

Some of us lost our senior sports seasons, our chances to be captains and team leaders. Some lost our final chances to compete for clubs that we've given our all to for the last four years. Some of us lost our final opportunities to perform or display our art, and all of us lost the chance to have all of the fun and closure that we were promised would come in the last three months of our senior year.  Losing the last third of our senior year to a virus was not what we had planned, but it's definitely an experience that will affect our lives forever and a memory that we will never, ever forget. We are made up of our experiences and memories. All of the things that we have been through up to this point make us who we are, and the best part is, we're not done yet. We'll continue to experience things and make memories every day that mold us here and there and to who we truly are and who we are meant to become.  What kind of experiences will you create for yourself? What kind of memories will you make? When things don't go quite as planned, like our senior year, how you handle the disappointments and challenges that you face will determine the experience that you have and the memory you walk away with. 

Favio Gonzalez

Valedictorian, Central Valley High School, Ceres, Calif.

Gonzalez says there were many other events besides the pandemic that helped his class develop their character. In his speech, he highlights the election of President Donald Trump and the prevalence of school shootings. Despite what was happening in the world, he says his class never victimized themselves.

Gonzalez will be attending the University of California, Riverside, where he plans to study biology.

The real test came our senior year with the current pandemic. Although society has developed a higher level of understanding, comprehension and acceptance in years prior, self-victimization has become a common occurrence and is a major impediment in achieving our goals. We expect others to find the solutions to our problems and to provide excessive help, since we truly are powerless in stopping the external factors that impact us constantly, whether it'd be natural disasters, terrorism or disease.  Yet, what many people don't realize is that the impact these unfortunate events have on our lives can be nullified by the effort we place in improving our condition. Learning this from past experiences, our class did not victimize itself. Studying and mastering new material is difficult enough with the help of our amazing teachers, with the added responsibilities of helping more at the house, working an essential job and other challenges that come with being at home, it seemed impossible to keep up with schoolwork. We had to face a multitude of barriers with our unrelenting will to succeed. Standing here today, despite all of the setbacks and obstacles, because of our drive, our perseverance, our willpower to endure is stronger than any deterrent.  Now, as we step into adulthood and start to reach our goals, there will be harder challenges to overcome. But our willpower has been proven irrevocable. Never forget classmates, that as long as you use your unrelenting well, you're an unstoppable force.

Barrie Barto

Valedictorian, South High School, Denver

Barto says when her school closed, she tried ignoring some of the emotions she was processing. "I realized that you need to take the time to acknowledge what we have lost and celebrate how we have grown and how this is going to change us as a class," she says.

This inspired her to write the speech she felt that she needed to hear.

To be honest with everyone, when I sat down to write this speech, I really wanted to avoid talking about everything we miss as a class. It would be way easier to reminisce about when the homecoming bonfire was in the back parking lot. But when people told me they were sorry that my whole senior year was turned upside down, I shrugged it off and said it's not a big deal. It's a hard thing to talk about, and not talking about it seems less painful. But it is a big deal. We missed senior prom and graduation and our barbecue and awards. I would even go back for one more class meeting in the auditorium just to sit in South for one more Thursday. This pandemic was not the defining event for our class. Don't let it be. We had monumental events occur every year we were at South. We have supported our teachers when they rallied for themselves. They've supported us when walking into school was harder than it was any other day. We supported each other through the pains of block day, and air conditioning only working in the winter time, but also shifts in friendships and hard times with family. South brought us all together to teach us something about ourselves that we didn't know before.

Haylie Cortez

Valedictorian, Bartlett High School, Anchorage, Alaska

Cortez says she feels lucky to still be able to give a message and was inspired by what has been helping her cope.

"One of the things that pushes me through everything is knowing that things will go on and stuff will change," she says. "I just want to remind everyone that the future is still there and it's still coming to us."

Cortez plans on attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the fall, where she wants to study civil engineering.

We all deserve to celebrate and be proud of ourselves. It's upsetting that we won't have a traditional graduation ceremony and sadly, we cannot control the circumstances that we face today.  What we can do is choose how we respond to it as we take these next steps in life. It can be hard to imagine what life could look like as time progresses. The only certainty we have is that time goes on and the future will arrive. We can use the pandemic as an excuse for why we can't move on in life, or we can use it as a motivator to find our purpose. Whether we plan to go to college, trade school, the military or straight into the workforce, there is no denying that society will gain something worthwhile. The situation we are living through shows how valuable everyone in society is. The world is finally realizing the importance of the jobs of janitors, cashiers, teachers, politicians, first responders and more. Whatever we plan on doing after we graduate, it will impact society. I invite everyone to look to who you can't thank, and take your time to do so, although the door for high school has abruptly shut for us. I would like to remind everyone that another has opened and we can do with it what we want.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

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Banding Together: Words to Inspire, From the Front Lines

Here's why you should say thank you to a frontliner today.

(SPOT.ph) The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the world to grind to a halt. As shops and establishments shut their doors temporarily, we are given a reminder—at painful costs—of which businesses are truly the backbone of society. The workers at the front lines of this epidemic—doctors, nurses, admin officers, cleaners, security guards, delivery men and women—have gone beyond their call of duty and shown that, hey, maybe they should be paid more than rock stars, basketball players, and actors. 

Also read: These Local Restaurants Are Helping Feed Frontliners

Read some of the most moving soundbites from medical frontliners:

“medyo pagod, medyo masakit, pero may pang-haplos naman. but because of my commitment and dedication to the job, balewala na.”.

The first few days of the quarantine were a logistical nightmare, to put it mildly. The sudden public mass-transport ban left many without any other option but to walk to work—56-year-old Mary Daisy Nietes included. On the first day of the quarantine, Nietes left her house in Bacoor, Cavite at 2:30 a.m. to make it to her 6 a.m. shift at the PGH in Manila where she works as a head nurse, she told Manila Bulletin . Several kilometers worth of walking, a lucky taxi ride, and messy checkpoints later, she arrived at her destination and got to work.

“All of these faces you don’t see on TV are here to serve you and the country. Fueled by nothing more than caffeine, donated food packs, and sheer determination to fight the disease in their own way.”

All of these faces you don’t see on TV are here to serve you and the country. Fueled by nothing more than caffeine, donated food packs, and sheer determination to fight the disease in their own way. — Geli Blanco (@gelibeans1) March 29, 2020

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine has been leading the way for COVID-19 tests—and the pressure on the facility’s employees are sure to be something else (especially after VIPs were reported to have elbowed their way in for special treatment). Geli Blanco, who works with their communications team, shared an inspiring story of hope on Twitter . Despite running on empty, our healthcare workers, security guards, custodians, and all the people at facilities like the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) are here to fight the good fight.

“We plead and urge everyone to do his share in quelling the spread of this infection—especially our nation’s duly elected leaders.”

The story of Senator Koko Pimentel's admitted breach of quarantine protocol is likely to find its own place in Philippine history (or at least until the 2022 elections, ideally). But here’s one good thing that came out of that debacle: Makati Medical Center Medical Director Saturnino P. Javier’s statement denouncing the senator’s lapse . In an uncharacteristic move for a private entity, the doctor’s words cemented what should be painfully obvious: a public servant’s role is to serve the people, not themselves.

“Instead of turning our backs on them and hurting them because we are scared of getting infected, we need to give them thanks and celebrate them. There is no match for their dedication and service to our country.”

As the face and voice of the Department of Health amidst this crisis, undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire has remained calm and collected. Her no-nonsense approach has earned her respect online and she used her position to be very, very clear about one thing: health workers deserve no stigma for doing their work. As reports of discrimination surfaced, Vergeire reminded all that “Our healthcare workers and other frontliners are helping our country survive this crisis.”

“The front line of this epidemic is you, the people in the community, tasked with the challenge of keeping each other safe.”

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

The accepted narrative is that medical workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic—but this doctor is here to offer a sobering take. Dr. Michelle Au, an anesthesiologist at Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia , points out that the first line of defense against COVID-19 starts with each and every one of us. Sounds cliché, we know, but it’s true; we are responsible for not getting ourselves and others sick. “We as healthcare workers stand in the back. We’re the last line of defense.”

“We’re in this together, to do the right things with calm and protect the citizens of the world. It’s doable.”

What’s in a name? The decision to characterize the global spread of the COVID-19 disease by the World Health Organization as a pandemic is not without politics. The agency was heavily criticized for the same move during the 2009 swine flu pandemic with people saying that the word caused more panic than necessary—but as the World Health Organization director general explained in his opening speech to the media, the word “pandemic” is a call to action . “We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: All countries can still change the course of this pandemic,” he added.

“I'm ready but not well-equipped [but] it's my duty to help in this time of pandemic.”

Outside of Metro Manila, barangay health workers make do with what they can to monitor the potential spread of COVID-19. Midwife April Abrias walks nearly 10 kilometers every day to check on her patients, according to a CNN article . Abrias does not have the necessary protective equipment nor the proper training, but she continues monitoring possible COVID-19 cases in her area, fully aware of the risks. 

“We have to survive this. We have to be together. Everybody’s life is important.”

It’s easy to forget that behind all the numbers and hard data are human beings. A small moment during an interview between CNN Philippines’ AC Nicholls and Dr. Glenn Paraso, executive director of the Mary Johnston Hospital, Inc. in Tondo, Manila, proves the many moral and ethical issues that our frontliners face every day. Paraso, who specializes in public health, also called for the admittedly “draconian measures” of a lockdown. “I’m not anti-social. I’m pro-life.”

 “We do not wish to be glorified by this job, we only wish to do it well.”

A few days after the WHO declared a pandemic, Dr. Paula Erika Reyes of the Philippine Heart Center sent out a message of thanks for all frontliners, whether working in the medical field or not. Amid all the words being flung around, her message of hope and unity among all frontliners stood out. Said the doctor in a Facebook post, “This morning as we prepared to go to work, we had this fear—fear of the uncertain, the indefinite, the unknown. But we were greeted by smiling security guards, vibrant nurses and aids, courteous and diligent housekeepers.”

“Let us do this because deep in our hearts—devoid of fear and anger—it is the right thing to do.”

As generals used to call on their soldiers before a fight, so did Dr. Gerardo D. Legaspi, director of the Philippine General Hospital in a moving statement . As the government hospital was designated as one of the COVID-19 centers, Legaspi called on the institution to remember its legacy of public service and to identify the true enemy: not the virus, but fear. He added, “This task is daunting but it will be surmountable if we all band together as one.”

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

A woman wearing a face mask in Miami.

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

  • The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?
  • A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.
  • What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.
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In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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World Vision International

5 Inspirational ways communities responded to COVID-19

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to every community around the world. Whether struggling to secure face masks and sanitiser, teaching children from home, missing loved ones, or maintaining mental health during lockdowns, every one of us has felt the effects of this global pandemic. These five communities discovered unique and innovative ways to tackle the virus and keep each other safe.  

BidiBidi Refugee Settlement, Uganda 

These young Sudanese refugees living in BidiBidi Refugee Settlement are rapping to educate their communities about COVID-19. Understanding it was no longer safe for large groups to meet for community information sessions, these young musicians came together to record songs that World Vision played at food distributions to spread awareness and educate people about how to stay safe during the pandemic. 

Amazon River, Brazil 

World Vision’s floating hospital, the ‘Solidarity Ship’ set sail in July 2020 to reach remote riverside communities along the Amazon. The team of doctors, nurses and dentists on board provided communities with medical care, food packages and information packs to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

Emergency Food Distribution, Zambia 

Food distributions look a little different during a pandemic. For communities battling food shortages as well as COVID-19, World Vision began running socially distanced food distributions with sanitisation stations so that people stayed safe and still received the life-saving food they desperately needed. 

Herat, Afghanistan 

When Afghanistan recorded its first COVID-19 case in February 2020, crowded public places like markets and mosques were at risk of spreading the disease. As well as educating the public on handwashing and social distancing, World Vision worked with communities to disinfect public spaces every day to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.   

Writing is a medium of communication that represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols.

In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language but a form of technology. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form of a formal alphabet. The result of writing is generally called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence and diary. Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems.

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We have reached nearly 60 million people through our COVID-19 emergency response.

Learn more here.

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Stories of hope, resilience and inspiration during the coronavirus pandemic

Individuals from around the world share their personal stories of hope, resilience, and inspiration during this time.

Conducting research during the COVID-19 pandemic

Bisma Farooq Sheikh India

Coronavirus Lockdown: Boon or Bane “Treat lock down as Boon rather than Bane. This is a golden opportunity to have a great time with family… It is the best time for dual earner couples to spend time with each other. It is an opportunity for kids to have a great time with parents. It is an opportunity to learn new skills. It is an opportunity to enjoy life. Give time to your hobby like gardening, writing, drawing. It is an opportunity to cherish with friends online, it’s time to enjoy more sleep… Life has too much to offer provided we have the right mindset.”

Aimee Karam Lebanon

“It is not about the virus per se, nor about the stress of being confined at home. It is about a large part of the Lebanese people, who due to the current challenging economic crisis and the confinement decreed in the face of the virus adversity, is suffering from fear, loneliness, deep poverty and hunger in times of a deadly pandemic. Living in Lebanon nowadays is an act of surviving adversities in a country of a panoply of human paradoxes, simultaneously inhaling and exhaling tragedies, irreverence but also magnificent and heroic efforts of solidarity. A sense of fundamental anchor is being created where safety and bonding keep the miracle of life alive. One million dollars in one hour, broke the record on the first day of a fundraising campaign with explosions of happiness. Three associations, sharing the values of transparency, political independence, integrity and non-discrimination, joined forces to organize this fundraising, soliciting the Lebanese diaspora in the United States to join hands to help the most disadvantaged. The sum raised has covered boxes of food for 50,000 families, around 175,000 people for one month. People, with an incredible devotion, are distributing boxes of food with love and compassion towards their compatriots with one uniting message: Food is a human right, no one should be hungry!”

Lina Fernanda Vélez Botero Colombia

“In Valle del Cauca, Colombia, psychology leaders who represent the partnership built between the Colombian Association of Psychologists (COLPSIC) and various universities in the region have made it possible for mental health attention to be a priority for citizens and healthcare workers. This was developed within the department's mental health committee against Covid-19 and in governmental strategies available for the community. Through the creation of a platform called calivallecorona.com , the Valle and the Paciific Region community not only have access to care services for their physical health with medical personnel, but also, through the module called Emotional Well-Being , they can access free tele-counseling services to promote emotional well-being. It seeks to offer a model of multidisciplinary care for the community during this health emergency, with a focus on mental health prevention and promotion, also integrating the early detection of complications. For psychology, this is an action of great social impact that responds to current global challenges such as making visible the needs of mental health in the face of the emergency, interdisciplinary work for community welfare in a dialogue of knowledge with other professions such as engineers, psychiatrists and doctors, and achieving an inter-institutional alliance with the public and governmental sectors of Colombia.”

Laura Neulat France

“When Pedro found out he was being transferred to a Covid-19 ward, he was overcome with fear. A young physiotherapist specialized in orthopedics; he enjoyed working at one of Paris’s largest hospitals. Now he was going to spend his days around Covid-19 patients, who needed breathing therapy after leaving the intensive care unit – holding them in his arms, keeping his face near theirs. In our weekly tele-session, a few days before he was due to start his new role; I encouraged him to focus on feelings of safety. I suggested he carry an index card with a thought that made him feel strong, such as The FORCE is with me! I further suggested he focus mentally on that mantra on his way to the hospital; also knowing he had it in his pocket, just in case. Pedro had learned to use mindfulness to regulate emotions and we said he was going to put on his protective equipment in mindfulness, focusing on every piece of equipment and telling himself, This cap keeps me safe , etc. Once all geared up, he would tell himself, I am safe . I feel at times we as psychologists must be able to afford flexibility with our boundaries. So parallel to the sessions, every evening I recorded a 10 second video of my street at 8:00 p.m., when we open windows for the applause to thank health workers, and I sent them to him with two words: Thank you . Pedro texted me Sunday evening: Thank you, I am now ready . At the end of his first day in his new role he texted me: I have just finished my day, it all went all right, I felt strong .”

L. R. Madhujan India

“For people who feel safe at home, the isolation period is the best time to plan for the future. Try to be creative. We can survive all this. We have the strength. Soon, new mornings will come. The flowers will bloom and the streets will become active. The sun will shine more brightly. The aroma is fragrant.”

Liza M. Meléndez-Samó Puerto Rico 

“As a university professor, the challenges of moving to virtual classes were not far behind. Even though I had just received a certification in virtual distance education. During this semester I found myself teaching a course on contemporary models of psychotherapy. Two weeks after the quarantine began, the unit I would teach on would be expressive therapies. I was thinking how to translate a dynamic application in the classroom into a virtual activity. At that moment it occurred to me, rather than giving a class, my students needed that space to process the new reality of COVID-19. So, not only did I give a virtual class on expressive therapies, I converted the space into an art therapy live application as well. The goal was that each of them from their homes could express themselves from their homes through four drawings, allowing creativity to flow and emphasizing the process, not the result. By discussing the theories, they analyzed their arts meaning, which in turn promoted laughter and participation among them. Also, the group discussions allowed them to find new meanings, named their concerns and see the positive side of it all. But more importantly allowed them a space to express and reflect on their feelings about everything we are experiencing and how we can count on this tool not only for themselves, but also for their professional work. Curiously, there were repeated drawings, symbols and shapes between them (i.e. spirals). At the end, they told me that this had been the best class they have had online.”

Usha Kiran Subba Nepal

Patience is a Virtue “Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful island surrounded by flowers gardens, streams, and ponds. It was perceived as heaven on the earth peaceful and serine. All birds and animals lived together happily for many years. As the times passed they felt the environment has changed, there were no rains in rainy seasons, the pond was drying, and the garden was dried up and faded. The island has suffered severely from drought. Animals and birds decided to migrate to a new place for livelihood. In the same place, there were a couple of geese, and a tortoise lived on the pond. They were best friends. The geese decided to migrate from there. The tortoise also wanted to move with them, but she was unable to fly. So she pleaded to geese to rescue her from the problem.

It was a great challenge for the geese regarding how it was possible. But they were very kind and did not like to lose their friend so they got an idea to take her together. They brought a long stick with their beaks and asked the tortoise to hold the stick with her mouth tightly. They warned her not to open her mouth at any cost. They flew together and when they reached a new city, city dwellers were wandering to see such an amazing scene in the sky. They called up other people loudly to behold it and enjoy the moment. The tortoise and geese heard a loud noise. The tortoise was much disturbed by the noise and crowd and she opened her mouth to control it. As soon as she did, she had fallen to the ground and passed away.

We conclude the story in Nepali as saying: Bhanne lai Phool ko mala (Storyteller gets flower garland), Sunne lai sun ko mala, (story listener gets gold garland), It will remain in the mind of people forever.”

Oi-ling SIU Hong Kong

“The COVID-19 outbreak has caused immense stress and undermined psychological well-being. Many have been concerned not only about being infected, but also about shortages of hygiene products and food. Wofoo Joseph Lee Consulting and Counselling Psychology Research Centre (WJLCCPRC) at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, promptly launched a press release in February 2020 to advise Hong Kong citizens on how to be resilient to mitigate the psychological impacts of the epidemic. The press release was covered by three local presses and two social media platforms. The online campaign alone reached 146,000 online viewers.”

Zarina Giannone British Columbia

“My story of hope, connection, and inspiration has emerged through volunteerism and giving back to the community that works tirelessly to ensure my safety and wellness. I have coped with the pandemic by working with the British Columbia (B.C.) Psychological Association and the University of British Columbia-Okanagan to spearhead the development of opportunities for doctoral psychology students and trainees to become involved in supporting the recently announced Emergency Telepsychology Services Program, a novel program run by psychologists that provides free telepsychology services to health care workers at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. Some of the ideas that have been raised as potential options for student involvement include developing written clinical content for distribution among health care workers (e.g., coping during COVID-19), offering peer support with other health care students/trainees (e.g., nurses, medical residents), and providing mental health first aid. I have found that getting involved to help alleviate the psychological burden that has arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an effective way of coping and staying connected. I know that I am not the only one because we have had over 40 students sign up to volunteer in less than 48 hours! This is truly quite remarkable because there are probably less than 100 students enrolled in professional psychology doctoral programs in B.C.!”

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Distractify

These Inspirational Quotes Won't Cure the Coronavirus, but They'll Lift Your Spirits

Updated April 22 2020, 6:56 p.m. ET

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is stressful to say the absolute least, and almost more than fearing the physical symptoms of the disease, for many people stuck in quarantine, the pandemic is also starting to take its mental toll.

Staying at home 24/7 is hard enough as it is. Add to that being a full-time teacher, chef, and housekeeper, while maintaining your full-time job— and the stress is enough to drive anyone up the wall. 

But it’s important to deal with grief, loss, and loneliness in a healthy way because pent-up stress can lead to physical problems like higher blood pressure and in the long run, heart disease. 

While there are steps you can take to manage stress like taking breaks from the news, connecting with loved ones, exercising at home, and taking the time to unwind from daily life, we’ve also put together some inspirational quotes to help you get through this difficult and uncertain coronavirus time .

Inspirational quotes to get through the coronavirus.

1. “You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” —A. A. Milne 

2. "Just keep swimming." —Dory, Finding Nemo

3. "You are only confined by the walls you build yourself." —Andrew Murphy

4. "Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" —Mary Anne Radmacher

5. "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lay an invincible summer." —Albert Camus

6. “Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” —Sarah Dessen

7. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” —Sun Tzu

8. “Keep calm and carry on.” —British government, in preparation for World War II

9. "The last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” —Victor Frankl

10. “Nothing’s OK. So it’s OK.” —Bernard, I Heart Huckabees

11. “What we call obstacles are really the way the world and our entire experience teach us where we’re stuck.” —Pema Chodron

12. "Don’t worry ‘bout a thing. ‘Cause every little thing’s gonna be alright.” —Bob Marley, "Three Little Birds Dub"

13. "Better to be busy than to be busy worrying." —Angela Lansbury

14. “Look for the bare necessities. The simple bare necessities. Forget about your worries and your strife.” —Baloo, The Jungle Book

15. “This too shall pass.” —Persian saying

16. “Every day begins with an act of courage: getting out of bed.” —Mason Cooley

17. "The best way out is always through." —Robert Frost

18. “Your living is determined not so much what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as, by the way, your mind looks at what happens.” —Khalil Gibran

19. “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” —Rabindranath Tagore

20. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan

We hope these quotes lift your spirits! Don't forget: This too shall pass.

The best way to prevent contracting or spreading coronavirus is with thorough hand washing and social distancing . If you feel you may be experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, which include persistent cough (usually dry), fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue, please call your doctor before going to get tested. For comprehensive resources and updates, visit the CDC website . If you are experiencing anxiety about the virus, seek out mental health support from your provider or visit NAMI.org .

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COVID-19: A reminder of the power of hope and solidarity

May 5, 2020.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

Ulrika Modéer

UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy, UNDP

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

Co-Founder, Heart17

The novel coronavirus pandemic can be the moment the world pushes back against fear and isolationism, and turns instead towards hope, solidarity and a shared sense of global community.

These are fearful times, to be sure. Some 3.55 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly a quarter of a million have perished. Billions of people are on lockdown or in self isolation.

Yet this pandemic and the fear, dread, and anxiety that it has induced has not occurred in isolation. For years, we have existed under the constant and pervasive feeling that things are getting worse, that we are failing each other and that we are failing our planet. This isn’t helped by a daily news cycle that reads like an ever-escalating drumbeat of anxiety. Climate change, war and conflict, isolationism and trade wars; our world, at times, feels dark and lonely, and this despite the many, many positive news stories that exist but that rarely get attention.

Global togetherness

No one doubts that COVID-19 is one of the most dire threats the world has ever faced. And yet, amidst the confusion and anxiety, there are ever stronger signs of hope and solidarity, a sense of, and desire for, togetherness.

It is this spirit of global togetherness that gives us hope. In this time of crisis, we are all neighbours in the world, and success will only be achieved when all people, in all countries, are protected.

Thankfully, this shared sense of responsibility has seen a world come together in ways that we have not seen for some time, and the examples are everywhere.

In the U.K., an army of volunteers has come forth to support their neighbors. As stated in the New York Times , “When the government appealed recently for 250,000 people to help the National Health Service, more than 750,000 signed up. It was forced to temporarily stop taking applicants so it could process the flood.”

In Somalia, where health infrastructure and traditional media have suffered under decades of strife, local storytellers are being equipped with the skills and tools to reach remote communities and educate them on best practices against COVID-19. The initiative is a collaboration between UNDP Somalia ’s  Accelerator Lab  and experts from Australia’s Queensland University and  Digital Storytellers .

And, as pointed out by Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Youth Envoy, young people from Syria to Peru to South Sudan are helping to tackle misinformation, raise community awareness and support the elderly.

Such examples are spreading like wildfire as people seek out a light at the end of the tunnel and work to show, to each other, that we all stand together. We see this in the towns and cities around the globe where citizens are painting hearts on windows, where crowds cheer for healthcare workers, and where everyday people perform songs on social media to help lift spirits.

Leaning into hope

Without ignoring the realities we face, it is clear that the world is reaching for a positive message. These words were echoed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to world leaders, as he emphasized the need for solidarity and global cooperation .

His call has resonated. Long sought-after partnerships with private sector companies are suddenly coming to fruition as everyone steps up to pitch in. UNDP has recently partnered with Variety on a global ad campaign. And UNDP’s new partnership with Heart17, a global initiative using creativity and innovation to accelerate the SDGs and light a spark of hope among the young generation, has brought together major players within fashion and popular culture, such as H&M Group and Spotify, to share their media space for messages around health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Certainly there will be many lessons learned once COVID-19 has passed, and UNDP’s Accelerator Labs has assessed some of the post-COVID-19 trends they see emerging. A key takeaway is this: COVID-19 has been a sort of reset across societies, across sectors. From telecommuting for work or school, to supply chain management, to support for health systems, and small and medium enterprises, to mental health support across borders or simply across the street, COVID-19 has forced us to look at how we work as a species on this planet.

Amidst the pain that we continue to endure, we should find comfort in the stories of hope and solidarity, and continue to see the value in the positive, encouraging lessons that are emerging for our post-COVID world.

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6 Ways to Rediscover Motivation During COVID-19

Tired of covid already reconnect with your lost motivation..

Posted August 26, 2020 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

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When the reality of COVID-19 sunk in, finding the motivation to keep up with work or school each day dropped to the bottom of a long list of concerns for a lot of individuals. Five months later, daily responsibilities and the COVID-19 pandemic are still going strong, and for many, this means being at home and in front of a screen for hours at a time.

With no clear end in sight, adjusting to the new normal of working from home has understandably taken its toll; uncertainty about the future, challenges with mental and physical health, constantly being in the same environment, and having to stay distant from peers and colleagues are just some of the things affecting our ability to even focus on our daily responsibilities, let alone tackle them with any sort of enthusiasm. It’s no surprise that as the weeks go on, staying motivated seems like an impossible task.

Acknowledging such obstacles to motivation, however, is an important step in managing them. While we may know how new and difficult the current situation is—having likely heard the word “unprecedented” more times than we can count—that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to boost motivation when working from home begins to wear us down. Here are six tips to do just that!

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1. Lay Out Your SMART Goals. Goal setting is an excellent method for building up your motivation. Finding the motivation to tackle work and school can feel pointless if we see no direction. Therefore, setting personal goals gives us something to work toward, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic has left many feeling like they are floating in space.

Now, this doesn’t have to mean shooting for the stars right away—start small, and remember to keep your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Maybe your goal is to exercise three times a week; maybe it’s to send out that one email you’ve been putting off, or maybe it is to take time out for yourself to just do nothing and rest. Whatever your goals may be, jot them down for when you need a reminder of where you’re headed.

2. Tackle Your Daily Tasks. Having goals set up can help us frame the future and stay on track, but sometimes that isn’t quite enough to drum up much-needed motivation—especially if the day ahead is still filled with uncertainty. One way to regain control over that uncertainty, however, is to plan out your daily tasks.

When the day ahead is still bouncing around in your mind, along with everything else trying to grab your attention , it can seem a lot more overwhelming, making it a challenge to feel motivated to tackle those tasks. Seeing the pieces of your day laid out in front of you can help declutter your mind and provide a more accurate picture of what you have going on. This list can include work-related tasks like a 3:00 meeting or non-work-related tasks like making your bed or eating breakfast. Going a step further, crossing out each task once it’s finished can be a weight off of your shoulders, and the immediate reward of seeing the list get smaller can give an extra boost.

Jess Bailey on Unsplash

3. Build Your Routine. Just as with planning out your daily tasks, control is key in a time where so much is up in the air; it can be difficult to stay motivated when you feel as though you have no idea what is going to happen next. Now is the time to start building in small aspects of your routine, as a way to add some predictability back into your life. Again, this doesn’t mean adding a hundred new parts to each day—start small and test out a few habits here or there.

For example, maybe each morning you like to drink a cup of tea before you start work, or you want to take a long walk each afternoon. By creating little habits that you can count on, you can regain a bit of control and predictability, and focusing on these things may not only ease some of the emotions present due to the pandemic but also give the feeling of a stronger grip on each day.

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

4. Emphasize Self-Care. One of the most common pieces of advice for someone feeling the mental/emotional impact of COVID-19 is to emphasize self-care—and this is a go-to for a reason! If we continue to drive forward and push ourselves during such a period of anxiety and stress , we will burn completely out without realizing it. Dedicating time each day for things that focus on your mental and physical health is crucial.

You can even narrow this focus onto caring for your motivation. When feeling particularly unmotivated, hammering away at your brain to continue on a task can not only be exhausting, but it can often be completely counterproductive. Sometimes, we have to let our minds take the wheel and ask ourselves: “What am I motivated to do right now?” It could be that you are struggling to motivate yourself to finish that article, but you are really motivated to finally start practicing the guitar. If so, set aside 30 minutes to play. Allowing your brain to direct your motivation for a bit of time can re-energize you and reset your attention so that you feel fresh when you sit back down to the work/school-related task. It also can remind your brain that there is motivation in there, it just needed to be guided out!

5. Stay Social. Another significant way to boost your motivation when working from home is to keep up with social connections. Staying distant from one another can be harder for some than others, and we don’t realize how important interacting with others is until something like a pandemic pushes us apart. Without the certainty of peers, friends, or even family in close proximity, many are left feeling alienated and even anxious, making the motivation for daily tasks even harder to come by.

Luckily, technology has brought us to an age where other people are a simple text, call, or FaceTime away, and while too much screen time can sometimes do more harm than good, having at least one person you can turn to when you need inspiration, a boost, or a vent session might be what you are looking for when feeling unmotivated. Even when socially distancing, try to make room—six feet at least—for the people in your life.

 Alfred on Unsplash

6. Seek Out Therapy . For many, COVID-19 has stirred mental health issues like anxiety and depression , and it is not unlikely that challenges with mental health could pose a significant obstacle to motivation. Seeking out a licensed mental health professional will provide a space for you to discuss the source of your difficulty to stay motivated, as well as provide techniques or strategies for managing disruptive thoughts and emotions. Visiting websites like Psychology Today, asking friends for referrals to their therapist, and even talking to your physician are great resources to begin connecting with a mental health professional.

Although there may be more uncertainties than certainties at the moment, it does not have to mean that motivation, energy, and productivity are out of reach. Acknowledging the challenges that we currently face while finding places to take a bit of control back into your life will allow you to find those elusive bursts of motivation and take on each day in the best way possible!

To find a therapist, please visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory .

Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Goal-setting theory of motivation. International journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-6.

Wegge, J., & Haslam, S. A. (2005). Improving work motivation and performance in brainstorming groups: The effects of three group goal-setting strategies. European journal of work and organizational psychology, 14(4), 400-430.

Woolley, K., & Fishbach, A. (2018). It’s about time: Earlier rewards increase intrinsic motivation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 114(6), 877.

Wendy Boring-Bray, DBH, LPCC

Wendy Boring-Bray is a Doctor of Behavioral Health and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor specializing in working with individuals that are motivated to make changes in their lives.

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WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 20 March 2020

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are.

Every day, COVID-19 seems to reach a new and tragic milestone.

More than 210,000 cases have now been reported to WHO, and more than 9,000 people have lost their lives.

Every loss of life is a tragedy. It’s also motivation to double down and do everything we can to stop transmission and save lives.

We also need to celebrate our successes. Yesterday, Wuhan reported no new cases for the first time since the outbreak started.

Wuhan provides hope for the rest of the world, that even the most severe situation can be turned around.

Of course, we must exercise caution – the situation can reverse. But the experience of cities and countries that have pushed back this virus give hope and courage to the rest of the world.

Every day, we are learning more about this virus and the disease it causes.

One of the things we are learning is that although older people are the hardest hit, younger people are not spared.

Data from many countries clearly show that people under 50 make up a significant proportion of patients requiring hospitalization.

Today, I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks, or even kill you.

Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.

I’m grateful that so many young people are spreading the word and not the virus.

As I keep saying, solidarity is the key to defeating COVID-19 - solidarity between countries, but also between age groups.

Thank you for heeding our call for solidarity, solidarity, solidarity.

We’ve said from the beginning that our greatest concern is the impact this virus could have if it gains a foothold in countries with weaker health systems, or with vulnerable populations.

That concern has now become very real and urgent.

We know that if this disease takes hold in these countries, there could be significant sickness and loss of life.

But that is not inevitable. Unlike any pandemic in history, we have the power to change the way this goes.

WHO is working actively to support all countries, and especially those that need our support the most. 

As you know, the collapse of the market for personal protective equipment has created extreme difficulties in ensuring health workers have access to the equipment they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.

This is an area of key concern for us.

We have now identified some producers in China who have agreed to supply WHO.

We’re currently finalizing the arrangements and coordinating shipments so we can refill our warehouse to ship PPE to whoever needs it most.

Our aim is to build a pipeline to ensure continuity of supply, with support from our partners, governments and the private sector. I am grateful to Jack Ma and his foundation as well as Aliko Dangote for their willingness to help provide essential supplies to countries in need.

To support our call to test every suspected case, we are also working hard to increase the global supply of diagnostic tests.

There are many companies globally that produce diagnostic kits, but WHO can only buy or recommend kits that have been evaluated independently, to ensure their quality.

So we have worked with FIND – the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics – to contract additional labs to evaluate new diagnostics.

In parallel, we’re working with companies to secure the supply and equitable distribution of these tests.

And we’re also working with companies to increase production of the other products needed to perform the tests, from the swabs used to take samples to the large machines needed to process them.

We’re very grateful for the way the private sector has stepped up to lend its support to the global response.

Just in the past few days I’ve spoken with the International Chamber of Commerce, with many CEOs through the World Economic Forum, and with the “B20” group of business leaders from the G20 countries.

We understand the heavy financial toll this pandemic is taking on businesses and the global economy.

We’re encouraged by the solidarity and generosity of business leaders to use their resources, experience and networks to improve the availability of supplies, communicate reliable information and protect their staff and customers.

And we’re also encouraged that countries around the world continue to support the global response. We thank Kuwait for its contribution of 40 million U.S. dollars.

In addition to increasing access to masks, gloves, gowns and tests, we’re also increasing access to the evidence-based technical guidance countries and health workers need to save lives.

WHO has published guidelines for health ministers, health system administrators, and other decision-makers, to help them provide life-saving treatment as health systems are challenged, without compromising the safety of health workers.

The guidelines detail actions all countries can take to provide care for patients, regardless of how many cases they have. They also outline specific actions to prepare health systems, according to each of the “4 Cs” – no cases, sporadic cases, clusters of cases, and community transmission.

These guidelines provide a wealth of practical information on screening and triage, referral, staff, supplies, standard of care, community engagement and more.

We encourage all countries to use these and the many other guidelines, which are all available on the WHO website.

But we’re not only advising countries. We also have advice for individuals around the world, especially those who are now adjusting to a new reality.

We know that for many people, life is changing dramatically.

My family is no different – my daughter is now taking her classes online from home because her school is closed.

During this difficult time, it’s important to continue looking after your physical and mental health. This will not only help you in the long-term, it will also help you fight COVID-19 if you get it.

First, eat a health and nutritious diet, which helps your immune system to function properly. 

Second, limit your alcohol consumption, and avoid sugary drinks.

Third, don’t smoke. Smoking can increase your risk of developing severe disease if you become infected with COVID-19.

Fourth, exercise. WHO recommends 30 minutes of physical activity a say for adults, and one hour a day for children. 

If your local or national guidelines allow it, go outside for a walk, a run or a ride, and keep a safe distance from others. If you can’t leave the house, find an exercise video online, dance to music, do some yoga, or walk up and down the stairs.

If you’re working at home, make sure you don’t sit in the same position for long periods. Get up and take a 3-minute break every 30 minutes.

We will be providing more advice on how to stay healthy at home in the coming days and weeks.

Fifth, look after your mental health. It’s normal to feel stressed, confused and scared during a crisis. Talking to people you know and trust can help.

Supporting other people in your community can help you as much as it does them. Check in on neighbours, family and friends. Compassion is a medicine.

Listen to music, read a book or play a game.

And try not to read or watch too much news if it makes you anxious. Get your information from reliable sources once or twice a day.

To increase access to reliable information, WHO has worked with WhatsApp and Facebook to launch a new WHO Health Alert messaging service.

This service will provide the latest news and information on COVID-19, including details on symptoms and how to protect yourself.

The Health Alert service is now available in English and will be introduced in other languages next week.

To access it, send the word "hi" to the following number on WhatsApp: +41 798 931 892. We will make this information available on our website later today.

COVID-19 is taking so much from us. But it’s also giving us something special – the opportunity to come together as one humanity – to work together, to learn together, to grow together.

I thank you.

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden on Fighting the COVID- ⁠ 19   Pandemic

4:31 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon.  I’d like to make an important announcement today in our work to get every American vaccinated and protected from the Delta virus — the Delta variant of COVID-19.

I just got a lengthy briefing from my COVID team, and here’s the lattest [sic] — the latest data that confirms we’re still in a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

While we’re starting to see initial signs that cases may be declining in a few places, cases are still rising, especially among the unvaccinated.  There are still 85 million Americans who are eligible to get vaccinated who remain unvaccinated and at real risk.

Across the country, virtually all of the COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated.  In Alabama, more than 90 percent of the current hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.  In Texas, 95 percent of those in hospitals are unvaccinated.  Right now, it’s worse in states where overall vaccination rates are low. 

But let me be clear: Even in states where the vaccination rate is high, the unvaccinated in those states are also at risk and — and we’re seeing cases rise as a result. 

Quite frankly, it’s a tragedy.  There are people who are dying and who will die who didn’t have to. 

So, please, if you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it now.  Do it now.  It could save your life, and it could save the lives of those you love.

You know, and the good news is that more people are getting vaccinated.  Overall, weekly new vaccinations are up more than 80 percent from where they were a month ago.

While it can take up to six weeks to get fully protected after your first shot, this increased level of vaccination is going to provide results in the weeks ahead.

Just remember, we have two key — and two key ways of protecting ourselves against COVID-19.  One: safe, free, and effective vaccines.  And two: masks.  Vaccines are the best defense, but masks are extremely helpful as well.

And for those who aren’t eligible for the vaccine yet — children under the age of 12 — masks are the best available protection for them and the adults around them.  That’s why we need to make sure children are wearing masks in school.

Before I talk about the news related to vaccines, let me say a few words about masks and our children. 

Unfortunately, as we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is, children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain.  Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school.  They’re setting a dangerous tone.

For example, last week, at a schoolboard meeting in Tennessee, protestors threatened doctors and nurses who were testifying, making the case for masking children in schools. 

The intimidation and the threats we’re seeing across the country are wrong.  They’re unacceptable.

And I’ve said before, this isn’t about politics.  It’s about keeping our children safe.  This is about taking on the virus together, united.

I’ve made it clear that I will stand with those who are trying to do the right thing.

Last week, I called school superintendents in Florida and Arizona to thank them for doing the right thing and requiring masks in their schools.  One of them said, “We teach science, so we follow the science.”  The other said they have a guiding principle: “Students first.”  I couldn’t agree with more than –I just couldn’t agree more with what they both said.

And that’s why, today, I am directing the Secretary of Education — an educator himself — to take additional steps to protect our children.  This includes using all of his oversight authorities and legal actions, if appropriate, against governors

who are trying to block and intimidate local school officials and educators.

As I’ve said before, if you aren’t going to fight COVID-19, at least get out of the way of everyone else who is trying.  You know, we’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.

For example, if a governor wants to cut the pay of a hardworking education leader who requires masks in the classroom, the money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to pay that person’s salary — 100 percent.

I’m going to say a lot more about children and schools next week.  But as we head into the school year, remember this: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC — says masks are critical, especially for those who are not yet vaccinated, like our children under the age of 12. 

So, let’s put politics aside.

Let’s follow the educators and the scientists who know a lot more about how to teach our children and keep them safe

than any politician. 

This administration is always going to take the side of our children.

Next, I want to talk to those who — of you who can get vaccinated but you haven’t.  The Delta variant is twice as transmissible as the Alpha variant.  It’s dangerous, and it continues to spread.  Vaccines are the key to stopping it, and we’re making progress.

Today, more than 90 percent of seniors have at least had one shot, and 70 percent of people over the age 12 have gotten their first shot as well.  That’s good news, but we need to go faster.

That’s why I’m taking steps on vaccination requirements where I can.  Already, I’ve outlined vaccine requirements.  We’re going reach millions of Americans: federal workers and contractors; medical staff caring for our veterans at VA hospitals; and our active-duty military, reservists, and National Guard.

Today, I’m announcing a new step.  If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid, you will also be required to get vaccinated. 

More than 130,000 residents in nursing homes have sa- — have sadly, over the period of this virus, passed away.

At the same time, vaccination rates among nursing home staff significantly trail the rest of the country.  The studies show that highly vaccinated nursing home staffs is associated with at least 30 percent less COVID-19 cases among long-term care residents. 

With this announcement, I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of healthcare costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors.

These steps are all about keeping people safe and out of harm’s way.

If you walk into a government office building, you should know that federal workers are doing everything possible to keep you safe.

If you’re a veteran seeking care at a VA hospital, you should not be at a greater risk walking into the hospital than you were outside the hospital.

And now, if you visit, live, or work in a nursing home, you should not be at a high risk for contracting COVID from unvaccinated employees.

While I’m mindful that my authority at the federal level is limited, I’m going to continue to look for ways to keep people safe and increase vaccination rates.

And I’m pleased to see the private sector stepping up as well.

In the last week, AT&T, Amtrak, McDonalds — they all announced vaccine requirements.

I recently met with a group of business and education leaders — from United Airlines, to Kaiser Permanente, to Howard University — who are also doing the same thing.

Over 200 health systems, more than 50 in the past two weeks, have announced vaccine requirements.  Colleges and universities are requiring more than 5 million students to be vaccinated as they return to classes this fall.

All of this makes a difference.

The Wall Street Journal reported the share of job postings stating that new hires must be vaccinated has nearly doubled in the past month.

Governors and mayors in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington have all announced vaccination requirements. 

So let’s be clear: Vaccination requirements have been around for decades.  Students, healthcare professionals, our troops are typically required to receive vaccines to prevent everything from polio to smallpox to measles to mumps to rubella.

In fact, the reason most people in America don’t worry about polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, and rubella today is because of vaccines.  It only makes sense to require a vaccine that stops the spread of COVID-19.

And it’s time for others to step up.  Employers have more power today to end this pandemic than they have ever had before.  My message is simple: Do the right thing for your employees, consumers, and your businesses.

Let’s remember: The key tool to keeping our economy going strong is to get people vaccinated and at work.

I know that I’ll have your back — they should know I’ll have their back, as I have the back of the states trying to do the right thing as well.

For example, yesterday, I instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency –- FEMA –- to extend full reimbursement through the end of the year to state developments — to state deployments of National Guard in support of COVID-19 response.

Nearly 18,000 National Guard members are supporting our response nationwide, from caring for patients, to administering vaccines, to running testing sites, to distributing supplies.

As the states continue to recover from the economic toll left by COVID-19, the full reimbursement of National Guard services during this pandemic will be another tool that will help them shore up their budgets, meet the needs of their communities, and continue our ec- — our economic recovery. 

These are the latest steps we’re taking to get more people vaccinated.

Next, I want to speak to you all — all of you who are vaccinated.  How should you be thinking about the moment we’re in?

First, know that you’re highly protected against severe illness and death from COVID-19.  Only a small fraction of people going to the hospital today are those who have been vaccinated.

But we have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection — all of you the maximum amount.

Earlier today, our medical experts announced a plan for booster shots to every fully vaccinated American — adult American.  You know, this shot will boost your immune response.  It will increase your protection from COVID-19.  And it’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.

The plan is for every az- — every adult to get a booster shot eight months after you got your second shot.

Pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC’s Committee of outside experts, we’ll be ready to start these booster — this booster program during the week of September 20, in which time anyone fully vaccinated on or before January 20 will be eligible to get a booster shot.

So that means that if you got your second shot on February 15th, you’re eligible to get your booster shot on October 15th.  If you got your second shot on March 15th, go for your booster starting on November 15th.  And so on.

Just remember, as a simple rule — rule: Eight months after your second shot, get a booster shot.

And these booster shots are free.  We’d be able to get the booster shots at any one of the approximately 80,000 vaccination locations nationwide. 

It will be easy.  Just show your vaccination card and you’ll get a booster.  No other ID.  No insurance.  No state residency requirement.

My administration has been planning for this possibility and this scenario for months.  We purchased enough vaccine and vaccine supplies so that when your eight-month mark comes up, you’ll be ready to get your vaccination free — that booster shot free.  And we have it available.

It will make you safer and for longer.  And it will help us end the pandemic faster. 

Now, I know there are some world leaders who say Americans shouldn’t get a third shot until other countries got their first shots.  I disagree.  We can take care of America and help the world at the same time. 

In June and July, America administered 50 million shots here in the United States and we donated 100 million shots to other countries.  That means that America has donated more vaccine to other countries than every other country in the world combined.

During the coming months of fall and early winter, we expect to give out another — about 100 thousand [million] boosters, and the United States will donate more than 200 million additional doses to other countries.

This will keep us on our way to meeting our pledge of more than 600 million vaccine donations — over half a billion.

And I said — as I said before, we’re going to be the arsenal of vaccines to beat this pandemic as we were the arsenal of democracy to win World War Two.

So, let me conclude with this: The threat of the Delta virus remains real.  But we are prepared.  We have the tools.  We can do this.

To all those of who are unvaccinated: Please get vaccinated for yourself and for your loved ones, your neighborhood and for your community.

And to the rest of America, this is no time to let our guard down.  We just need to finish the job with science, with facts, and with confidence. 

And together, as the United States of America, we’ll get this done. 

God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you. 

4:47 P.M. EDT

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Academics sends messages of hope, inspiration and solidarity amidst COVID-19 pandemic

June 3, 2020 | 10:32 am

example of inspirational speech about covid 19

Home / A-Team On-Line Publication / Academics sends messages of hope, inspiration and solidarity amidst COVID-19 pandemic

“I won’t let the Academic Community succumb to this COVID-19 pandemic. Learning continues. Teaching continues. Academic Service support continues. Staff support continues. Our operations continue for Learning knows no boundaries. Together, and by association, we shall all prevail”.

Juanito O. Cabanias, LPT, MAE, PhD Vice Chancellor for Academics

“At the end of the day all we need is hope and strength. Hope that it will eventually get better and strength to hold on till it does”. And while we are waiting; whatever hardship, challenges, indecisions and fears that we are facing, we just remember that these too shall pass and by the grace of God we will overcome. To our students we hope that they continue to trust us that what we do today will define what kind of health professionals they will all be in the future. We promise that excellence will still be part of everything that we do for them and our community. Just remember that tomorrow is still full of wonderful possibilities for all of us here in DLSMHSI.”

Alicia P. Catabay, RPh, MSc, PhD Dean, College of Pharmacy

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde As a Lasallian community, may we continue to reach out to those who may have forgotten the light that shines above. There’s light in this darkness; all we need is to look up.”

Sigfredo B. Mata, RPh Vice Dean, College of Pharmacy

“Spanish flu (1918-1920); Asian flu (1957-1958); Hong Kong flu (1968-1969); H1N1/09 flu (2009-2010);

Which have lost an outrageous number of lives.

Then, COVID-19 (this too shall pass). Four words that may have given hope and resurrection to millions, then and now.

Life may be short, but God made sure it is wide and tall”

Jose Antonio P. Amistad, MD, FPSA Dean, The Student Affairs

“St. John Baptist de La Salle believes that education gives hope and opportunity for people. And so, during this time of COVID-19 uncertainty, let us remember that we were chosen to continue the mission of St. La Salle in nurturing the young, through education, especially those who had little hope for educational advancement due to COVID-19 pandemic.”

Marlon G. Gado, RL, MLIS Director, Center for Innovative Education and Technology Integration

“Weak? Tired? Feel like giving up? Take heart…We have Someone greater than all these challenges.

Isaiah 40:28-29, 31 says, “….The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary…. He gives power to weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength…. ….those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;”

Maria Corazon E. Gurango, MD, MPH, FPAFP Director, Center for Community Engagement and Health Development Program

“This pandemic has caused anxieties, fears, and uncertainties. But we are capable, strong, and resilient. We may not be able to control the situation but we can control ourselves: our thoughts, actions, and choices. We can rise above these challenging times and continue our mission and ministry together as one Lasallian community.”

Efren M. Torres, Jr., RL, MLIS Director, Romeo P. Ariniego, MD, AFSC Library

“The COVID-19 pandemic brings new challenges unfolding each week, compelling us to re-configure our academic strategies with urgency but with uncertainty, and oftentimes beyond our capacity to cope. We must not lose hope, and as one community in Christ, continue with our mission inspired by John Baptist De La Salle.”

Lemuel A. Asuncion, OTRP OT Chair, Clinical Education College of Rehabilitation Sciences

“The Lord gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers”.

The greatest weapon we can have today is guarding ourselves with faith and prayer. May this situation help us realize that the Lord is always with us and will never leave us.”

Jion P. Dimson, RMT, MSMLS Chair, Student Development and Activities Department, The Student Affairs

“As Lasallians in these time of pandemia, let us compose ourselves as mature, responsible, and self-disciplined individuals minding our health and safety, as well as our academic responsibilities in achieving our full potentials. By simply staying at home and doing worthwhile things, we are expressing our reverence for life.”

Roberto L. Cruz III, RN, MAN Chair, Student Discipline and Security Department The Student Affairs

“As Lasallians we still continue to serve our partner communities despite the threats of COVID-19 along our way because nothing can stop our great desire to improve the health of our communities. We will continue to empower the people in the community for heath equity and for God’s greater glory!”

Jose Marcelo K. Madlansacay, MDC Chair, Community Service-Learning Projects Center for Community Engagement and Health Development Program

“The challenges of COVID-19 may seem unnerving yet, it can be an opportunity for growth and positive changes. May we strive to be hopeful, courageous and resilient despite the adversities we have to face. Let us draw strength from each other as we pray for healing around the world.”

Ma. Sheila Q. Ricalde, MAEd, RPm, RGC Vice Chair, Student Life The Student Affairs

“You are capable to handle this. I BELIEVE IN YOU. This health crisis can be overwhelming and that is PERFECTLY NORMAL. You may not think and/or feel at your best this time but THAT IS OKAY. YOU can still be a beacon of hope amidst this pandemic.”

Cesar M. Lago, MAEd, RGC Vice Chair, Student Success The Student Affairs

COVID-19: A Blessing?!

“COVID-19 can be considered as a blessing in disguise. Because of it, many have changed. All the busy streets were emptied, all the malls were closed, all were required to stay home. Everyone started to help one another, family ties were strengthened, everybody started again to turn to God and pray, pollution was lessened and Mother Earth started to recuperate. Let’s look on the brighter side. Stay well Lasallians!”

Jose Royce P. Aledia, RGC Chair, Student Wellness and Guidance and Counseling Department The Student Affairs

“As we face this time of uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic, do not forget that God is with us, we have to intensify our faith, be mindful that protection from sickness must begin within us, always wear mask, wash our hands frequently and observe distancing, take care not only our physical health but also our mental health. Keep safe everyone!”

Irene B. Maliksi, RN Chair, Student Health and Safety Department The Student Affairs

“There is light at the end of the tunnel, a rainbow after the rain and every cloud has a silver lining. Despite the pandemic, we, the Non-Teaching Personnel, will continue to support the administration in fulfilling the mission set forth by our Founder, St. John Baptist De La Salle. Together we will fight. Forever, we stand as ONE.”

Leslie V. Brito Administrative Assistant, College of Medical Laboratory Science

“Congratulations, graduating class of 2020! We might not have experienced the momentous march of our graduation, yet. Our victory should set blaze in our hearts and actions, not doused even by COVID-19. As the Wolff’s law says, “Strengthened under force of pressure, and overtime will become stronger to resist it.””

Christ Don E. Apuntar President, DLSMHSI Institutional Student Council

“As we face this global health crisis that causes major upheaval, we encounter challenges and become anxious about what’s going to happen. But surely, the presence of the Lord provides us hope of healing and certainty of the future. All you need to do is pray and strengthen your faith in Him! He will never leave us. He is our Emmanuel (God with us).”

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me”. —Psalms 23:4

Joren B. Fernecita President, College of Medicine Student Council

“We all know the dangers brought about by this pandemic, but worry less since everything is going to be alright. I do believe that we just need to have faith in God to overcome this. He will be the one to give us hope and strength to hold on until it gets better.”

Renee E. Andal President, College of Pharmacy Student Council

“To everyone, these are trying times but never forget to have faith in God and always seek guidance from Him. Always remember to stay safe and healthy. Let us fight this pandemic as One La Salle!

To our front liners, going above and beyond the call of duty is the essence of heroism. Some have fallen, but a lot more are continuing the fight. Heavy sacrifices have been, and continually being made. Words cannot capture the gratitude we wish to convey. But still, thank you front liners, heroes all, in every sense of the word.”

Christian Derik L. Aquino President, College of Humanities and Sciences Student Council

“COVID-19 has changed our way of living and has transformed us to something we have never imagined. This pandemic has affected all of us. As we face more challenges along our way, let us all be determined to keep on learning despite the hindrances. None of us can say with certainty when will it be safe…when will we get back to normal…when will this be over. Let not fear hold us back and may our faith help us triumph over this unseen enemy.

Stay safe. As Lasallians, We are One in this battle!”

Neil Vincent D. Guyamin President, College of Medical Imaging and Therapy Student Council

“As we face an invisible enemy, let’s take this opportunity to come together with clasped hands to pray for each and everyone’s safety. COVID-19 might have changed our way of viewing things, yet let’s be thankful for the life we have. At times like these, you may feel anxious; but do remember that you matter. You are not alone. We will bounce back and will continue to fight this pandemic as One Lasallian Family.”

Maria Veronica Louise C. Cabubas President, College of Medical Laboratory Science Student Council

“This COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a lot of things. We became closer to our family, realize the importance of our healthcare workers, and reflect that no one is safe unless you follow the guidelines set by our government. Even though we are far from its end, it is vital for us to always know that there is hope. That someday, we will see the light and overcome this darkness.

We shall conquer this together, Animo La Salle!”

Marvin Jay C. Salvador President, College of Nursing Student Council

“During his time, the Founder faced adversaries not too different from ours – poverty, hunger, sickness, corruption. He fully surrendered the work to God and succeeded. Likewise, let us remain steadfast in faith, bringing light to those who feel lost in the dark. Let us be vigilant whilst being empathetic to protect and nurture the weak and the weary. As we go through this pandemic, encourage a neighbor, check on a friend, hug a family member, donate to an organization, pray for the world; hope grows from the service we give – small or big. God will win the battle for us and we will call it our victory.”

Lizzy Jane Niquole Y. Ricardo President, College of Rehabilitation Sciences Student Council

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Bill Keane

“Every day is a blessing and we should not forget to thank God for it. In this time of crisis, we need to strengthen our faith in Him and believe that this will soon be over. There’s no such thing as too much praying after all, for He can get us through this pandemic.”

Hennessy M. Frani President, SHSSHS Student Council

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