International Challenges

Wow, I am not sure what to say about the international challenges. I was very disappointed to not have a contact outside of the United States to share information and resources with. I think it is a fantastic idea and a great way to collaborate with other professionals. I was very interested to read about situations that children have experienced such as natural disasters and how this affects development. At times the scope of thinking about things becomes very narrow. For example, I never considered how the tsunami of the Indian Ocean affected young children's development in terms of early childhood education. I, of course recognized the trauma this would inflict, but not how different age groups had to respond to the tragedy and what the implications for that may have been. I think there are cultural challenges that exist too. As I said maintaining open mindedness and not viewing things so narrowly also comes in terms of ethnocentrism as well. Poverty, religion, culture, norms, mores are all unique to individual societies and interpreting those things in context, as opposed to within the limitations our own culture allows can be challenging. Lastly, at this stage of our professional journey we can make contacts, increase our knowledge base, but ultimately how do we contribute? I suppose I feel a little of my disappointment in not having a contact can be tied to this thought. I know I want to reach out. I want to learn more, I want to contribute to Early Childhood Education regionally, nationally, and internationally. Mentor-ship from established professionals is one way in which this can be accomplished. I feel breaking into that atmosphere can be challenging.

So with regard to the challenges faced and my drive and passion to contribute, my international goal would be to eventually form a type of sister city program linking a program I am working with in combination with a program internationally. I am very interested in The Congo, Angola, or Pakistan for this international resource. There is so much to be learned and even in life when consulting a third party opinion things seem clearer to that other party. I believe having a supportive program to collaborate with, as well as work to enhance young lives strengthens us as professionals. Also, this increases the exposure to cultural diversity for our young children we serve, and hopefully leads to a spirit of altruism later in life.  

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization is an organization with members and affiliates worldwide. This organization is reaching children and families from Africa to the Philippines and striving to overcome challenges such as accessibility, health, and poverty issues. One such way is through Millennium Development goals, which addresses and tries to overcome extreme poverty in communities worldwide by linking individuals to educational services. Another way that UNESCO works is by teaching respect for cultural and indigenous values. This encompasses language, tradition, religion, and aspects that contribute to the identity of individuals with respect to their region and background. Lastly, UNESCO encourages and promotes equality for all genders worldwide in educational settings. UNESCO works to bridge the gap culturally so that girls as well as boys are kept in educational settings in order to preserve their culture, yet have opportunities as well. This initiative works to encourage both genders to stay in school, have equal access to school, and promote a love of learning.

I was very surprised to read of all of the programs UNESCO supports. It is encourage and uplifting to learn about this program. My interest is definitely peaked and I will continue to browse this sight in order to stay current on issues and trends worldwide.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2012). Early childhood care and education. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Military Families

Zero to Three newsletter described a project that was launched by Zero to Three in combination with other organizations such as The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles in order to find grant funds to help military families with special needs children. Research discovered there was a lack of available services to military families that have children requiring special needs, therefore the funds were raised and secured in order to assist families. The program is called Coming Together Around Veteran Families. Below is a link to the information. In addition a google search of Coming Together Around Veteran Families returns a PDF of a training hosted in April and topics that were discussed. Children of Veterans and military families have unique experiences and it is wonderful that an organization is recognizing this, in addition to taking steps to provide awareness and accessibility to these families.



http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/funded-projects/military-families/expandingouroutreach.html

Excellence & Equity

As I did not have luck reaching out to international resources I chose to listen to a podcast on World Forum radio by Barnabas Otaala that was similar in information provided by Harvard University's article, The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. Otaala (2005) mentions the impact that having HIV/AIDS has on young children as they not only suffer from the illness and developmental effects, but also the psychosocial effects from being stigmatized. As the children do not feel a sense of equality combined with physical illness they suffer in all domains of development creating a bleak outlook for future educational success. Fink, Matafwali, Moucheraud, & Zuilkowski (2012) contribute to this idea presented by Otaala by studying the effects of malaria on young children in Zambia. Zambi is also a country ravaged by HIV/AIDS in addition to malaria. A study that has factors that began over 30 years ago, examined the changes to the development of young children after a Malaria Prevention and Treatment program was established in portions of Zambia. Essentially the study wanted to discover if the reduction of malaria in young children due to the treatment program also increased positive growth and development for young children in Zambia. The study focused on "fine motor skills, language (expressive and receptive), non-verbal reasoning,
information processing, executive functioning, socio-emotional development and task
orientation" (Fink, Matafwali, Moucheraud, & Zuilkowski, 2012). The results of this study were difficult to assess as regionally some children had received early childhood education, yet many others had not. Children also experienced trauma, loss of a parent, and/or other childhood illness or disease. The combination of factors that could alter the results made coming to a definitive determination impossible. This study and the lack of substantial results highlights the struggles young children face in Zambia. Capturing the data was the first step in a long road to reform and equalize the early childhood education programs in Zambia, and hopefully raise awareness to the needs of this country's young children.  Below is an illustrated map of the six provinces data was collected from, 76% of children in these provinces combined suffered from malaria at some point before the age of 5 (2012).




Reference:
Fink, G.. Matafwali, B., Moucheraud C., & Zuilkowski, S.S. (2012, February). The Zambian early childhood development project. Harvard University. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/zambian_project/

Otaala, B. (2005).  HIV/AIDS and the young child. [Podcast] World Forum Radio.