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.