News

The KFF staff in Vilnius is practicing social distancing but is in daily contact. Our “Youth Can” program which brings young people in rural villages together for sports and mentoring sessions with our wonderful coaches is on hiatus now. But the team is searching for creative ways to connect children to our program and each other, to keep them physically active and continue building their life skills even during this most unusual time. So far program manager Arminas Vareika, coordinator Benas Maciulaitis and the coaches have been live-streaming daily workouts for children and sharing ideas and resources for creative fitness and life skill practices online. Even though the coaches’ work schedules have shifted, they hold group conferences online to discuss how to foster their communities and provide the support needed.

Here in the United States, people everywhere are rallying to help each other with kind, thoughtful and generous actions. Delivering groceries for the elderly, buying gift cards from their favorite restaurants that are closed, supporting local charities.  

I particularly want to tell you about the response of the citizens of my homeland, Lithuania, to this critical situation. As of this writing on March 24, there are 203 confirmed cases of the virus and one death. (The population of Lithuania is 2.8 million.)  

Social media influencer Mykolas Kleck put together a list of more than 60 (!) private individuals, businesses and organizations that are lending a helping hand. In the post, called “Oh, Lithuania, I love you so much“ he wrote in his post: “The world crisis came to Lithuania and the Lithuanian society united to create wonders. I can’t believe how many good people and responsible businesses we have here. I was overwhelmed with emotions collecting this information.” 

I’ll give you just a few of his examples of some of the actions that have been taken by ordinary citizens to help get the nation through the pandemic and its debilitating effects on life as we used to know it:

-Restaurants are delivering free meals to health workers.

-People with 3D printers are making protective supplies and parts of respirators.

-AirBnB hosts are giving their apartments free of charge for those who need to quarantine.

-Therapists are offering free psychological consultations for doctors.

-Art Academy students are creating coloring books for children. 

We know the internet is a powerful resource and Lithuanians are using it copiously: As Kleck writes:

“Programmers are doing free coding seminars, physiotherapists are making videos on healthy lifestyle, teachers are teaching children languages, educators are giving advice on things to do with kids at home, national TV launches an educational program for kids, dancers teach dancing classes, musicians are streaming free concerts from home, DJs are playing music sets from their kitchens, theaters are offering online shows and many more other initiatives are going on so that everyone could have less of a hard time during the quarantine. So much unity and support.”

Crises can indeed bring out the best in people and we all know we are in this together.

As we look ahead to the possibility of weeks and maybe months of this new way of living – not being able to gather or share meals or even give a friendly hug or kiss on the cheek – we can still reach out via email or better, a phone call, to those we care about, especially those who live alone or have no family. Now is the time to reconnect with old school friends or colleagues we may have lost touch with. To check in and see how they are doing and if there is anything they may need. To offer good book and movie suggestions to fill the hours of a long day for those who are unable to work or have lost their jobs.  

And anyone with financial resources we hope will find ways to help. For example, Kleck noted that Lithuanian journalist Andrius Tapinas and his team established a fundraiser to buy protective supplies and raised 150,000 euros in 24 hours. We at KFF are exploring different options to provide instant support for those organizations that are on the front lines - caring for our children in day centers and families with limited resources.  

We will indeed get through this crisis together.

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Photo: Jurate Kazickas in the days when it was ok to touch your face!

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