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
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio
emsece 