“Early Childhood Care and Education”

The UNESCO is leading the way for policy making in international early childhood care and education systems.  There purpose is to create holistic development in children in different countries. In Zambia the Ministry of Education incorporated the ECCDE into its national development plan especially in rural areas.  The amount of children receiving education is increasing but after the age of 4.  Programs for those under the age of 3 are not attended by many.  The amount of trained teachers for programs has increased significantly.

Global Children's Inititive

As I continue to explore the podcast about professionals, Meridas Yora who founded an institution for Islamic education, and built boarding schools for children who are orphans.  The teachers in these boarding schools become mentors or  mother/father figures creating an holistic environment.  The children suffered a traumatic event, the tsunami; by being in this environment the children are receiving the therapy and education that they need to cope with the event and have a brighter future.

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre

I decided to research Mongolia, just because I was curious. Over the years the economy has become more stable bit for the people of this country the divide has grown between those who benefit from the economy and those who are living in poverty.  The malnutrition rate is growing as families are unable to afford healthcare. One of the other concerns is the government is not doing anything to support those who are living in poverty.  Children are taking on more roles at home by watching out for their siblings instead of getting the proper education. From what I have read though the amount of children living in poverty is decreasing if their was government programs to help  there would be more progress in Mongolia.

Exploring http://nbcdi.org/

As I become more familiar with the site, I choose to explore some of the sites affiliates.  http://bcdi-atl.org/ is the address to the Atlanta branch of the BCDI organization.  As I explored the Atlanta site and the programs the organization sponsers. One in particular was under the Health & Wellness section entitled "My Little World Curriculum", with the help of community sponsors like Walmart and the Local Partnership for the children the organization created and implemented a program for Early Childhood Professionals.  The program was designed to give professionals tools to teach children healthy eating habits and to promote physical fitness.  Other programs included Raising a Reader, and a program entitled Enter the College Zone to begin encouraging middle school children to focus on higher education.

International Contacts

As I listen to podcast I am learning about several professionals, and in targeting international contacts recently I listened to the podcast that featured Maysoun Chehab who trains early childhood professionals, advocates and creates programs for children in Lebanon and surrounding areas. One of her focuses in psychosocial support projects. What really caught my attention was a program in which they implemented following the War in Lebanon. 126 primary schools where destroyed. The program targeted parents and teachers on the affects children could be experiencing from the trauma of war.The program gave made parents more comfortable in assessing and dealing with the situation support projects range of social and emotional effects. The resource center provides other programs of this same nature.

Current Issue/Sharing Resources

As the we all know hurricane Sandy was devastating for so many individuals, but did any one think about how children are being affected in this aftermath.  Something I found interesting on  http://nbcdi.org was a an blog on helping African American families cope with crisis. The book is entitled Helping Children Cope with Crisis.
"Helping Children Cope with Crisis is an activity book for African American families that was developed by the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in collaboration with other organizations serving the African American community."

I find this information very helpful to families.  Especially for African American families because we have a tendency to not address things and assume the children will be ok. Children are very resilient but having a resource like this can help them cope.

Resource:

http://nbcdi.org/blog/2012/11/02/helping-children-cope-with-crisis/

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have chosen to explore the website of the National Black Child Development Organization.  I have requested to receive there newsletter and am awaiting information from them.  Thus far I have found it interesting the the organization developed a program entitled Parent Empowerment Program(PEP). PEP was designed to give parents the tools to be their child's first teacher and is geared towards lower income African Americans but of course it can be used in a broad spectrum of parents.  I look forward to sharing more as I continue to explore the site.

I have also chosen to listen to podcast on World Forum.  The first professional I have researched is Susan Lyon who is the creator of the Innovative Teacher Project.  The Innovative Teacher Project is a pilot program to integrate the Reggio Emilia approach in a child development center in San Fransico.