Lessons learned from an impactful pandemic project

Mória refugee camp in Greece has been described by Human Rights Watch as an open-air prison, and by Pope Francis as a concentration camp.

This is where the English Language Network of Refugees (ELNOR) first started offering virtual English language classes to asylum seekers, in the hope of offering a pathway to a better life.

Isabela Arena Secanechia and Victoria Jones met in 2017 while teaching schoolchildren English in an under-served neighbourhood of Milan. When Covid-19 struck, they found that they no longer had an excuse not to do what they had always spoken about: teaching refugees.?Isabela and Victoria invited Layana Abu Touq and Suzanna Varicchione to join them, and the four launched ELNOR’s first online pilot programme in February 2021, teaching English to 21 refugees.

Fast-forward four years, and ELNOR has reached 600 students, has a volunteer base of 40 people, and offers 25 classes per week to people all over the world. ELNOR also sponsors IELTS exams and in 2023 achieved a 100% pass rate.

On their journey, ELNOR’s co-founders have learned valuable lessons. After developing a plan to launch an app, two core members of the team went to Greece to speak to people on the ground and were told it would not work, because people in camps often share devices and have limited storage and data. Instead, ELNOR uses platforms that students already have on their devices, like Whatsapp, Zoom or Instagram. The organisation initially strove to offer one-on-one classes, before learning that students preferred to be part of a group. They considered offering other languages – and found that many refugees in Greece were keen to learn German – but English is overwhelmingly the most desirable.

ELNOR, a registered 501(c)(3) in the United States, has raised more than ￡90,000 almost entirely by word-of-mouth. But the project is at a turning point. ELNOR’s team churns out grant applications regularly but has yet to win that game-changing sum that would allow them to scale. And with the global refugee crisis only set to grow – due to conflict, inequality, and climate change – scaling programmes like ELNOR is urgent.

Besides needing the funds to scale, ELNOR is also in search of experts to sit on its board of directors. Do you know the person for the job? To nominate someone, email [email protected]. To learn more about ELNOR, click here.