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세계 초일류 강대국인 미국이 코로나바이러스로 인하여 폭풍전야의 대혼란을 겪고 있습니다.
코로나 팬데믹에 대비하여 학교들이 휴교(Shut down) 조치에 들어가면서 유학 중인 외국인 학생들에게 귀국하라고 종용 중입니다. 현지 소식에 의하면 미국 전역에 있는 학교들이 향후 2, 3 개월 동안 휴교 될 것으로 전망하고 있어 유학생들이 귀국을 서두르고 있는데 표를 못 구해서 어려움을 겪고 있다고 합니다.
특히 워싱턴 주, 캘리포니아 주에서 감염자들이 많이 발생하여 이 지역에 거주하고 있는 학생들의 피해가 염려됩니다.
아래 영문은 미국에서 보내온 메일입니다.
March 15, 2020
Dear Partners, Parents, Students, Host Families, LCs and staff:
The entire world is facing a crisis on a scale not seen in 75 years. The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 coronavirus a global pandemic that is spreading unchecked across all borders. Over 167,000 are already sickened, thousands have died, and daily life has come to a halt in affected countries. No person or nation will be unaffected by the pandemic.
Health experts are telling us that the US and Canada will soon be similarly impacted with widespread disease affecting tens of thousands of people, if not more.
Commerce is quickly shutting down and on Friday, US President Trump declared a national emergency.
USA Students
In the US, schools are affected and over two-thirds of the schools we work with have shut down over the past three days. This will likely be 100% shortly. Many US schools are already planning on a minimum six-week closure. Every country that has enacted school closures has done so for at least six weeks and most much longer than that. In China, schools will end up being closed for nearly three months.
Over the last month, we have regularly convened an emergency task force to anticipate and manage our students’ well-being. The rapidly changing and unpredictable nature of this crisis will put an escalating strain on host families, LCs and staff.
In consideration of the safety of the children in our care, Educatius is suspending its US F-1 program directing all F-1 students in the USA to immediately return to their home countries until schools re-open (We will follow a similar protocol for Canada, scroll below for
details). Children around the world need to be with their families during this time of crisis. We are already receiving dozens of requests for repatriation from agents around the globe and we believe that the best course of action for the children in our care is to return home.
Our host families are wonderful people who have opened their homes to children from around the world. However, during this crisis, they will be equally challenged to maintain daily life and ensure the security of their own families. Some host families will see their own family members get ill and they need to be able to focus on that. If host parents become ill, there will be no options for student to be moved. Better that they are home with their own parents who also may need the support of their own children.
Once a student’s school closure has been announced, students should work with their natural parents to reschedule or book flights to return home immediately. We are aware of the difficulties to arrange travel, so ask that you make sure travel is completed by Friday, March 20th, at the latest.
Students currently at boarding schools are included in this direction. It is possible that individual boarding schools have made an allowance for international students to stay, but due to the rapidly changing situation we strongly advise those students to return to their homes as soon as possible.
Our host families and LCs will work to manage the logistics so students can arrive at the airport. Students should plan on at least a six-week stay back home before returning to the US once schools re-open. They should take all major belongings with them that they’ll need for their time home. As airlines are changing their capacity and nations are restricting entry, students should take action now while it’s still possible to obtain flights home.
Educatius is not alone in make this decision. The US Department of State and German Government have mutually decided to end the Congress-Bundestag high school program and return hundreds of participants to their home countries. It’s noteworthy that these governments, with much more access to information on the pandemic, are closing their programs.
Other organizations have started to recommend their students return and more are likely to follow. Most major US universities, including leading medical research universities Stanford and Harvard, have closed their campuses and sent all domestic and foreign students home.
Schools are still developing plans for studies during closure, but some have already indicated they will offer some sort of distance learning option. Where this is offered, students will need to continue their lessons remotely while at home.
Due to school closures, students will be unable to obtain travel signatures on their I-20s from the US, but Educatius will work with schools to provide this documentation prior to the student’s return. Once the crisis passes, we will return to normal and invite all students to return and finish their year.
In Summary
The rapidly escalating events compel us to take this action to ensure the safety and welfare of the children our program. This is not a decision we make lightly and our entire staff has debated how to best manage these issues internally over the past week. We feel this is necessary to put students’ safety over commercial interests. Each hour, more and more countries are issuing strong advisories for their citizens to return home immediately. Our entire team is working diligently and available 24/7 to manage through this worldwide pandemic.
While things seem grim now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The same health experts that are warning of the serious nature of COVID-19 are also saying that it will pass in the next two months if strict actions are taken now. And we are all looking anxiously forward to that outcome.
We are in the process of making sure that this message reaches all affected by this decision – given time zones and distances it may take up to 24 hours to reach all of our agents, host families, staff and schools. So please bear with us as we communicate this to everyone involved.
We are keeping you, our students, our host families, staff and everyone in the affected countries in our thoughts and prayers. We promise to work cooperatively with you to get through this and we’ll provide ongoing detail and frequent updates as the situation develops.