Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

 

I was so humbled this past week after reading and watching a video of a homeless family in Georgia overcoming homelessness.  This family is graduating two young ladies a 17 year old high school valedictorian and an 18 year old salutatorian.  This is to show that regardless of our living environment and economic circumstances we can overcome anything we put your mind to do. Here is a link to the article and video. (http://abcnews.go.com/US/georgia-teenager-overcomes-homelessness-valedictorian/story?id=19242121#.UaFgIjHD_mQ)

 

I have not been able to make contact internationally with anyone, I have sent 4 emails out and no response.

 

China is the country I choose to research their poverty status and the following is the statistics I have I learned from Chilhoodpoverty.org about China.

 

China – The world’s most populous country with a population of 1.27 billion in 2001. (childhoodpoverty.org)

 

• China has made major strides in poverty reduction in recent years. By 2001 5 per cent of China’s population lived below the national poverty line. (childhoodpoverty.org)

This was somewhat surprising to me because that China controlled their population growth but I also remember that China is a communist country and they tend to keep their population controlled.

• Much of this decline in poverty is due to far-reaching processes of economic and social transition.  However, economic growth has been slower in Western China, leading to higher poverty rates. Furthermore, the national poverty line is low by international standards, meaning that many more people live close to poverty.( childhoodpoverty.org)

I think the decline in poverty is due to population control of how many children a family can have.

• 4.2 million Chinese children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged conditions.⁹ Both the absolute numbers and proportion of children living in poverty has declined over the 1990s. Education and health levels in China are higher than in many countries with equivalent incomes – life expectancy at birth is 71 years, and 85 per cent of the population aged over 15 is literate. However, improvements in these areas have slowed down over the 1990s and there are major regional differences. (childhoodpoverty.org)

 

 

Reference:

 

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo

 

Sharing Web Resources

Sharing Web Resources

The website I choose is NBCDI – National Black Child Development Institute;

I am a member of the local chapter in Atlanta, GA the president is Cindra Taylor. I have benefited as a childcare provider from the professional staff and all the resources they had to offer as I attained NAEYC Accreditation. The local organization offers Leadership seminars and classes to administrators so that they can become familiar with all the new policies, trends and issues surrounding Early Childhood education. My staff also benefited from childcare related classes such as classroom management skills, cultural diversity awareness in the classroom and working with non- English speaking families. (www.nbcdi.org)

This organization is one that focuses on improving the quality of life and opportunities for African Americans children and families. This website focus on NBCDI from its inception in 1970 they focused on high quality affordable early care and education for children from birth to age eight years old. NBCDI supports federal, state, and local efforts to provide increasing numbers of low income children with access to quality early care and education. The current president and CEO is Dr. Felicia Dehaney. (www.nbcdi.org)

The resource I focused on is Early Education because NCBDI have several goals for black children and families by achieving positive outcomes for vulnerable children who suffer from the dual legacies of poverty and racial discrimination. This organization was launched by women and an advocacy group going back to the Civil Rights Movements determined to ensure that black families and children faced with unsatisfactory conditions would be changed to raise healthy black children. (www.nbcdi.org)

Their strong reputation is based on its work in early care and education and child welfare. They have mobilized a network of volunteers across the nation at the grassroots level of diverse individuals. The early care and education link listed several goals and some are as follows: (www.nbcdi.org)

 To recruit professionally, prepare, compensate and retain well qualified workforce.
 Support and develop QRSI – Quality Rated System Improvement.
 Advocate for inclusion of early care and school professionals
 Encourage states, districts and schools to embed professional development
 Encourage the development of culturally, linguistically, and developmentally especially for teachers.(www.nbcdi.org)

As the President said – “Life don’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children a better world” (President Barack Obama, 2008)”
The website address is http://www.nbcdi.org

Reference:

http://www.nbcdi.org

The resource website I choose to explore is

The resource website I choose to explore is NBCDI -National Black Child Development Institute.  Its a very interesting organization that I have worked with personally to become NAEYC accredited and it provides excellent resources to families and early care professionals.

Establishing Professional Contacts – Expanding Resources

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I made a few attempts to establish professional contacts from the resources given but so far no one has responded via email. I will keep trying until someone responds.
I did explore the World Forum Radio podcast and listened to Episode 3 and Episode 7 of two very interesting women from two different parts of the world one is from Belize and one from Canada their stories are very interesting as I listened to the radio podcast. I went to their organization website and sent my information via the contact us link and I hope they respond. In the meantime below are a summary of what they talked about.

Episode 3: – Delfina Mitchell who is the Director of Liberty Children’s Home in the outskirts of Belize City, Belize which is located in Central America. The program opened in the summer of 2005 and care for about 40 children birth to five years old that have either been abandoned, abused, neglected, HIV positive and with many disabilities. (http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio)
Ms. Mitchell talked about a young child that came to her center a 9 year old that came to the center with his six other brothers and sisters because of abuse and neglect. This child had not spoken for over a year he was physically abused; saw his sister being abused so he shut down. Ms. Mitchell talked about taking the boy for horseback riding and he started talking about his grandmother who would beat him and how he hid to eat food so that others would not take it away from him. She said regressed in age so his speech was not very comprehendible. With the combination of going to school, being outdoors in the garden and medication he started talking and talks a mile a minute. (http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio)

Episode 7: TJ Skalski
TJ Skalski is the Principal of the Mother Earth Children Charter school there are only 13 charter schools in Alberta and it is the first indigenous charter school. TJ is a proud (first nation woman (Aborigines). She talks about how big of an influence her Grandparents and her mother had in her life. The school had some issues with the board of directors and superintendents. She believes in the vision and mission of the school which is about reinvesting in our children by creating a community where culture and language is important. She talked about the children missing the basic family values, cultural awareness and strong work ethics which she got from her family. She talks about the kids that come to them are damaged, hungry, scared, depressed and not lack of self-worth, Her goals are to help them by building on their dreams and helping them build themselves up by ensuring culture and language is on the forefront. (http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio)

Reference:
http://www.libertyfoundation.org.uk

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