The Board of Trustees’ Message to Members and the Wider EECERA Community

Dear EECERA friends
We wanted to reach out to you all in the spirit of friendship and solidarity during these incredibly challenging times. We are aware that our collective work, which is at the heart of children and family services worldwide, is demanding from us unthinkable choices and decisions. The COVID virus is having a huge impact on us all personally and professionally, impinging dramatically on all aspects of our home and work lives. We know that you will all be struggling to support your families, meet your work demands and trying to keep vital services for young children going. These are great pressures and we are very appreciative of the need for us all to be flexible, supportive and generous hearted as the situation develops.
Social distancing and isolation is such an alienating requirement but strangely we have found most around us are responding in a spirit of fellowship and amity across borders and boundaries. Our friends, colleagues and neighbours are reaching out and offering such support that it enables us to dream of a better world emerging after this. For us, the loss of daily contact with those we love most is hard but we are trying to look ahead to a better time when we might reflect on this shared experience and know the lessons we have learned from all this pain. Things must change and we are hoping that we, ‘us’, in EECERA can play our part in rebuilding a better world after this. Let us all look forward to meeting again in time.
We wish you all strength as you navigate these perilous times, each in your own context but joined by our shared concerns.
Warmest
Chris Pascal, Tony Bertram, Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, Julia Formosinho, Irene Gunning, Maelis Karlsson Lohmander, Eleni Loizou, Margy Whalley
EECERA Trustees