Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

I have not yet received a response so I went to the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page. I read about childhood poverty in India. The website was very informative.

The insights I gained from studying the website. First I learned that approximately 400 million of India populations are children who are between the ages 0-18. The children there experience a difficult life. Just about half of all of the children are under and age 5 and are malnourished. Many of the newborns are born with low birth weights. There have been significant changes in health and education. As a result, infant mortality fell from 80% per 1000 live births in 1990 to 69 in 2000. I thought it was interesting that primary school age enrollment in school rose from 68 % in 1992-93 to 82% at the end of the decade. However they still have a great number of working children and many of them are under the age of 16.

The additional insight I received is in regards to providing for the well being of children is mostly determined by the children gender, instead of the need of the child. Sadly, girls are limited in their opportunity for survival in India. They experience this immediately at birth and it follows them throughout their childhood and into motherhood then past on to the next generation. Female children are neglected, their ratio is lower, less female are entitle to go to school and they are more likely to be subjected to child labor force.

Finally, the insight I gained on the ways India tries to address the issues of poverty in their country. There program are run by central government. They focus on three types of rural employment. The targets are infrastructure development, self employment and food subsidy programs. Each of the programs has made modification over the years in an attempt to provide for those who are definitely in need and cover more area. They also have food subsidy program the largest is the Public Distribution System which clearly targets the poor. In regards to children the largest program is Integrated Child Development Services Program (ICDS) which targets children that are in the 0-6 age range.  

As of result of reading about poverty India I was able to visualize how tough it is for children in that country. The information was overwhelming especially the way the girls are treated in that country. It is truly heart breaking.

Reference:

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy. (n.d.). Retrieved from   http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php

Sharing Web Resources

I chose Zero to Three and the link is http://zerotothree.org/.

Zero to Three is a national, nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.

Their mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers.

The issue that attracted my attention on the website was a video on Promoting Early Language and Literacy Development. The video addressed literacy as the window to the world that allows all children the opportunity to seize the potential for future success. It explains that we can make success a reality by investing our children early through supporting parents and caregiver as they encourage language in literacy and development.

Children develop language skills through exploration, discovery, and everyday activity and by listening to stories. The video identified that children become effective communicators through simple activity like singing, dancing and telling their own stories.

Establishing a loving and caring environment lays the foundation for future success. As parent and caregivers it is our responsibility to help infants feel safe to explore the world and the country responsibility to support the adults with training and resources to support this endeavor. It explained that positive relationship leads to trust and trust equal confidence. Children that are confident are better able to explore and learn. Leading them to a more successful life regardless of what course they pursue.

Also on the website there is an area that addresses establishing policy regarding early childhood. The Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide is your set of tools for taking action and improving public policies that impact the lives of infants, toddlers, and their families. 

The Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide offers a wealth of policy options and strategies to use in your efforts to affect policy change for infants, toddlers, and their families. It includes mini policy briefs, practical tools, in-depth policy papers, and more.

Getting Ready--Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

The steps I have taken so far to develop a professional contact with representatives in other countries. I started on Wednesday by going to the Global Alliance National Association for the Education of Young Children website. I reviewed the list of name given to select from and chose Ajoke International School located in Nigeria.  The contact listed was Mrs.Bimbo Are then I emailed her at arebimbo@yahoo.com.
Next, I went to UNICEF website a selected the country Kuwait I sent an email to the listed email which was riyadh@unicef.org. In both emails I identified myself as a student of Walden University I explained that I am interested in developing a professional contact with them or a representative regarding Early Childhood in their country as an assignment. I requested a prompt response. However as of 09-09-11 I have not gotten a response. As a result, I would like to allow them until Monday to respond to the email and then I will follow through with the alternative procedure to part one of the blog assignment.

I chose Nigeria and Kuwait because I really do not know a lot about these countries. I thought it would be interest to learn about countries I had no knowledge of. I know that many U. S. troops have been sent to Kuwait regarding the war. With that in mind I feel that they my have several issues but I would like to know about their perception of Early Childhood Education and so forth. As far as Nigeria is concerned I wanted to learn more about there practices and perception of early childhood because they are a poor country and I am interested in learning ways to assist them.

Regarding part 2 I went to the Zero to Three website and subscribed to their electronic newsletter.