Dear parents,
Dear stakeholders, 

I wanted to write my Happy New Year message last Wednesday. It was supposed to be full of hopes and King Cake. Instead, as the legislative branch of our government was being attacked and the country was descending into chaos, I was transfixed by the realization that I may lose “my” democracy for a second time.

When I was four, there was a coup in Argentina. On a Friday morning, my grandmother, a former member of Congress, received a call from a “friend” who warned her that “her son was going to be arrested on Monday“. After hiding in plain sight for a year, my parents had been “found”. My mother went to pick me up at school. She announced to me and to the teacher that we were going away for “an off-season European vacation“. I was chosen that afternoon to lower the flag: a very rare occurrence for my overly chatterbox personality. On Saturday, we went to the police station to get a passport expedited with some of my mother’s jewelry. My parents sold their apartment to our next door neighbor, who bought it for his bodyguards, and then they burned our library, which contained many forbidden books, in the bathtub. We left the country on Sunday. I was very excited to fly on a plane.

The irony is not lost on me that my 99.3% European heritage (according to 23andMe) had gone back to where my ancestors came… and left, because of other fascistic episodes in European history.

Democracies are not a given right, the spontaneous result of a natural order. Democracies are man and woman made. Not just the buildings and the elections. Democracies stay alive and healthy thanks to big and small decisions to protect and reclaim them, decisions made by the courageous and principled people who inhabit these same institutions, people who are imbued with worldviews and values. Thus the importance of education.

But I digress…

I hope you are all at home, that your families are alive, safe and in good spirits. As we all wait patiently for our turn to get vaccinated, I wanted to announce that in light of the deepening of the pandemic and the slow pace of the vaccine rollout, we have made the decision to finish the 2020-2021 academic year online.

This should not come as a surprise to you, but the earlier you know, the better you can plan the rest of your year.

Among the other news that is worth sharing while more details are being crafted:

  • We will be offering a Spring Virtual Camp
  • It’s still unclear if we will be able to offer Summer camps in person but…
  • We will be offering a Virtual Summer Camp and an Online Summer School
  • Starting very soon, we will be planning the reopening in person for 2021 Fall
  • We will continue offering classes online in the Fall and for the whole 2021-2022 academic year
  • Last but not least, we are offering an Escape Game next week to inspire our students ages 8-12 to evade with imagination!

Reopening our after schools in person will require some serious planning and a tremendous amount of effort to organize the community. At EFBA, we don’t have a marketing budget, but we have an infinite renewable alternative energy: the political will to organize the community for the common good.

For a school location to be born, we must count on word of mouth and on parent volunteers who help us gather the critical mass of families necessary to create a quality program in a particular locality.

Over the years, we have crafted strong, fruitful, long-term relationships with many schools and school districts. We can reactivate them once we know it’s safe again to gather in an indoor environment.

If you are interested in getting involved in reopening an EFBA site near you, please do contact us as early as possible via email at info@efba.us.

We thank you for the trust you place in us to educate your children. At EFBA, we pour our hearts and smarts into the mission. May 2021 be the year we start rebuilding a better way of living together and the very fabric of a more perfect union: a more respectful, diverse and caring society. There is room for everyone here, and immigrants, with their drive and different perspective, make this country, any country really, better!

Stay engaged and pay attention, the children are watching!

Gabrielle Durana

Founder and Executive Director

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