ADCAM has worked to promote the wellbeing of its students and families throughout the pandemic.  In addition to transitionig to remote learning during the lockdown period, the school helped mediate conflicts, promote the strengthening of family ties, and offer socio-emotional support to everyone involved. Those who faced many difficulties were guided to seek professional help.

When in-person classes resumed in schools across Brazil in February 2022, ADCAM transitioned to a hybrid teaching model with 100% participation by its students.  

Face-to-face classes held at the school campus obeyed all COVID-19 prevention protocols and were of great benefit to engaging students in the teaching-learning process and promoting interdisciplinary projects. To fill in pandemic-related learning gaps, teachers developed various pedagogical interventions to support students in the classroom.  

To create a virtual learning environment and transmit in-person classes, ADCAM used educational digital applications and platforms, such as Alunosbook Educational Platform,the Iscool App (Electronic Agenda),  Google Meet and Google classroom. 

When the government in Amazonas suspended in-person classes in mid-March 2020, ADCAM immediately transitioned its students to online classes in just one week.

Steps that ADCAM took to meet the challenges of operating in a pandemic include:

• Increased partial scholarships from 46 to  50 families.
• Transitioned extracurricular activities for Spiritual Empowerment of 100 students to an online platform.
• Held virtual Family Festival in June for children to present what they were learning to their parents.
• Held a “Solidarity Action Campaign” in lieu of the annual Citizen Health Fair. 
• Continued workshops for families on WhatsApp to help families deal with social isolation, assisting them in both the educational and emotional process.
• Provided a series of thematic lectures and conversation circles with various health professionals to support the well-being of families. 
• Invited psychologists and advisors to guide families through the challenges and isolation created by the pandemic.

It all started when Ferial and her family moved to Manaus in the heart of the Amazon in 1985. Ferial, pictured to the right, saw the abject poverty around her and decided to do something about it. Her first step was to pick up 5 abandoned toddlers off the street and bring them home with her and this is how the orphanage started. By the time she was done, 300 abandoned children had been adopted into good families. She then decided that education was the only way to address the root cause of poverty and started an elementary school. She added a classroom every year until the school offered a full K-12 curriculum.

Ferial then looked around and saw hundreds of street children, often with no clothes and hungry, begging in the streets.  She decided to do something about that and started ADCAM’s Family Development Center.  This program offers free education to the street children, while providing support and training to the parents.