Professional contacts week 7

This week I reviewed the UNESCO website.  UNESCO is an agency that specializes in building peace, eradicating poverty, and sustaining development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.  The UNESCO also advocates for early childhood care and education.

According to UNESCO access and equity is a global issue.  Some countries committed themselves to improve and support the early childhood care for the most vulnerable children.  Government many times lack financial resources to support early childhood care and education for many low income families.

The quality of the programs and teachers is also important in any part of the world.  Quality factors are pedagogy materials, training and parent involvement.   Learning materials should be quantitatively, culturally and developmentally adequate and focus on child-centered interaction.

Another issue is financial resources to support early childhood quality programs.  All countries struggle to find funds,  developed countries priority and  support and develop primary education.

The early childhood issues are similar in all countries including USA.  It is an international problem to have all families access high quality programs.  Also, funds are a challenge in times of economic crisis throughout the world.  I am very glad that an organization such as UNESCO contributes their advocacy  effort every day to help overcome these current issues in the field.

Week 6 Sharing Web Resources

While following some of the links in Save the Children website.  I found this very interesting link that leads you out to you tube where you can watch videos about the results and work that the organization does.  The link is Results for children, and there you can see links to watch the videos.

The area that I search thoroughly is what we do.  In this area you find all information about the programs they have, how they do the work.  When you visit this area, you get a clear understanding of their philosophy and what they are trying to accomplish with their programs.

In July 26, 2012, there was a new publication about teens in poverty seeking to save their money.  Save the children interviewed more than 2,000 children in ages from 12 to 18 in low income areas of Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal.   The studied revealed that children get the money from allowances, gifts or part time jobs and save it in amounts as small as .50 cents monthly.   They keep their money in piggy banks, under furniture or under piles of clothes.  They try to save for their future, but more than often they have to use for their school supplies, basic needs, and clothing.  Poverty is a topic that we have being studying during this course and how poverty affects the life of a child.  Using this example, I can tell that poverty force children to mature earlier and think about what they are going to do in a future to be out of poverty.

The website contains plenty information about the importance of meeting the basics of all children to secure a better future for all of them.  There are many inequities that affect children from all over the world.  Inequities to access medical services, high quality education, financial resources and to meet their basic needs.  While some children are thinking how to spend their money in the latest video game, other children are thinking to save money for a better future.

Something that I learned from reading the publication is that children in poverty are forced to mature. They think about their future in a very early age when children should be playing and enjoying their childhood without worries.

Sharing Web Resources Week 4

The website that I have been reviewing is Save the Children.  I am impressed of all the information that is gathered in this website.  They work with the most vulnerable children throughout the world, and there is information in the website of what they do in each country that they work.   While reviewing the website under the tab Take Action I found information about becoming an advocate for children.  Since I started my degree I have been more interested in advocacy than ever before.  It is an area of my profession that I want to continue developing and learning.   They have links to join their efforts through important social networks, they provide information in the most important trends and issues and encourage you to participate and speak to congress and information in legislation and what is advocacy.  Also they have information about the elected officials and what techniques are most effective to advocate for children and families.

One of the biggest consequences of poverty is malnutrition and lack of health services.  When people are poor they lack of means to provide for themselves and their family an appropriate nutrition and health services.  This organization works to ensure to provide these services in the areas where they work.  Besides worrying about the nutrition and health of the children we also have to worry about the state of health of the parents.  When parents are not healthy they lack of the energy to thrive for their children.  This situation makes it difficult for them to break the chain of poverty. 

In the website I found this statement “What does "go without" mean in America?   This means little access to books, early education, proper nutrition and play.  Children that face these issues have a hard time to thrive during their first years of development.

Facts in USA:

·         Four-year-olds from families affected by poverty are 18 months behind other 4-year-olds developmentally.

·         In 60 percent of low-income households, there are no books at all in the home.

·         In rural communities, 52 percent of children living in poverty are overweight or obese.

Obesity is another issue in early childhood.  Nowadays in the USA obesity has become a great health issues within the children.  This is due to the limited access of healthy foods and parents low education.

If politicians, neuroscientists and economists work together to create policies and programs that decreased poverty many of this issues could be drastically reduced.  Then we can have more healthy people and children that can develop and become productive citizens for our nation. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

Unfortunately, I did not get a response from the people that I attempted to contact over in Peru.  I am a little disappointed, but I will not give up.  For this week, I chose to listen to 2 of the podcasts.  I listened to Susan Lyon from Innovative Teacher Project and Barbara Jones Founder of Pine Groove Montessori School.  What I noticed in their podcasts is that they both  were interested in alternative education.  The early childhood field is changing, and more professionals are becoming interested in programs that promote high quality services.  Also, programs that are able to individualized and look at children from a different perspective.

With all the issues and trends that we find in our communities nowadays.  There is a great need of people and programs that are able to meet the needs and interests of all children.

During this week, I have been learning about poverty.  I was struck to learn how poverty can affect the healthy development of a child.  I look at poverty as a chain; a chain that needs to be broken.  If we provide the children in poverty with the services and systems that they need, we may help them to break with the poverty cycle.  They break the cycle by becoming  self-sufficient  and productive citizens in the country.

Sharing Web Resources

The International website that I selected is Save The Children.  

Save the Children is an organization that works in more that 120 countries to protect, save and improve the life of children.  Also, they have an emergency response program that is prepared to protect vulnerable children during and after disasters. One of the issues I found in their website is health and nutrition.  This entity works to provide access to health and nutritional services to children and their families.  They develop strategies and programs to make sure that they are reaching as many people as possible.

It has been proved that children benefit of quality health services and well- child check ups.   Unfortunately, not all children in the world have access to quality health services.  Even in the United States there is a great percentage of children and families who are not receiving their schedule check ups and services, due lack of insurance coverage. 

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

 Establishing Contacts:

For my professional contacts, I attempted to contact UNICEF Peru and OMEP Peru.  I chose this country because my husband is Peruvian I have been in that country few times.  Also, one of the goals that I have in my career is to collaborate with early childhood professionals in Peru to design high quality programs in that country.  So I thought what a wonderful opportunity   to get in contact with other professionals in that country to  learn about the issues that children in that country face through their early childhood.  I am still waiting for their response, and I hope they do respond to me as I am very interested in learning more.  If I do not hear anything by the end of next week, I  will pursue the alternative assignment because I have to complete my assignments by deadline.  However, I will still attempt to get contact with them even if is later during the course.

Expanding Resources:

For part II of this week assignment, I choose Save Children website.  The words  "Save Children" just caught my attention. Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need, in the United States, and around the world. This organization serves poor, marginalized and vulnerable children in 120 nations.  They help save children’s lives, protect them from exploitation and assist them in accessing education and health care.  Also, Save the Children also assists millions of girls and boys at risk of or affected by natural disasters, conflicts and ethnic violence.

My Supports

Support means to me people who care, listens and that stand on your side regardless  of situations you go through.  They are with you in the good times and bad times.  Support can also be tools that you use to work in your daily activities.  The most important support system, in my life, is the emotional support system.  My husband provides that support to me in a daily basis.  He listens to my frustrations and makes me realize that sometimes things are not as bad as I see them.  He also pushes me to  do better in everything that I do.  He is my friend and my counselor and he accept me for who I am.  Also, my sister and my son listen to me and help me to make decisions when I feel troubled or confused.  At work, my co-workers support the work that I do, and they work as a team to accomplish our goals.  Some of the tools that I use to support my daily activities is my outlook calendar it helps me to remember my appointments and meetings, the computer allows me to communicate and complete many of my tasks.  The GPS guides my way anytime I have to go to a unfamiliar place.  My life would be very difficult if I did not have the emotional support of my husband and my family.  Besides that  without the tools available to make my job easy.  My workload would be much bigger if  technology did not exist and the help of my team.