UNICEF, International Contact: Part III

What are your hopes and dreams and what qualities are needed in order to be an excellent professional in the early childhood field?

These are just a few of the topics that Ms. Christine Muhigana and I discussed this week. We first began our conversation about quality education. She believes that all children deserves a quality education in their earliest years, one that makes for a rich future. Children who start school late either drop out or fall far behind and can ultimately continue the poverty cycle. She also believes that in order for a child to receive such education, highly educated and trained professionals are needed. She has heard of and witnessed individuals who were not highly qualified teachers teaching young children in their early years. The results for children were not good, in fact, it was almost as if the child never attended an education program and fell behind later in the school years. These professionals should be leaders and role models for our children, encouraging them to be the best individuals they can be. Ms. Muhigana also explained that from what she knows regarding opportunities for professional development, some colleges and universities offer students to experience a classroom setting to better prepare them as teachers and to get an insight on what to expect.

As we continued on with our conversation, Ms. Muhigana informed me that her professional goals include; making sure all children gain access to quality education, protecting children from abuse and neglect, and improving the health for children who are suffering from diseases and lack of nutrition. This was a touching topic for her and she feels that she is obligated to protect children, especially the ones who are suffering from poverty. In order for children to be the best, they must first have healthy, warm bodies. She hopes that one day, more people will become involved in helping children. She also hopes that education will be more affordable for families in the future. One of the challenges that she continues to face is trying to tend to all families who are in need, in a timely manner. She feel that a quick response is needed, but sometimes does not happen because of the millions of families who need their attention and support.

As I ended the conversation with Ms. Muhigana, since she had mentioned it as a goal, I decided to take a look back at UNICEF's website to see what additional information I could find regarding abuse. I found that in 2002, millions of children suffered from sexual abuse. These children were under 18 and was forced to have sexual intercourse. Indeed, this organization is working to respond to such trauma and I will share one of their statements regarding the matter.

"As part of UNICEF’s commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Rio de Janeiro Declaration and Call for Action to Prevent and Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, UNICEF works to prevent and respond to sexual violence by engaging different government sectors - justice, social welfare, education and health - as well as legislators, civil society, community leaders, religious groups, the private sector, media, families and children themselves."

I continue to pray for the well being of our children.

More of CDF

"We can do better" - Children's Defense Fund

One of the links that I explored on the website involved news regarding a 14 year old boy name Noah, who was accidentally shot by his best friend. A devastated mother shares her story about losing her son and how she wished she could have taught him about the dangers of guns before his death. She admits that she feels horrible for letting her son play in a house where guns were visible and in the reach of children.

The area that I searched through thoroughly was the policy priorities section. The reason I focused on this section was to read about their concerns for children and their families. Here is what I found:

*CDF believes poverty should come to an end
*All children should be eligible to receive a high quality education in the early years
*By the fourth grade, children should be reading at their levels and should continue to receive high quality education until they graduate from high school
*All children and pregnant women should have access to good health coverage
*Children should be protected from child abuse and neglect and placed with caring guardians



Another link that I followed that relates to one of the issues that I have been studying regards high school students, who shared their families' immigrations stories. Some worry about their future because of their illegal status. Those that are legal are worried that their parents will soon be deported. Fortunately, they are learning their rights and striving to be a voice for children who are experiencing some of the same issues that they are facing.

This website has definitely added to my understanding of excellence and equity in early care and education. I say this because CDF is determined to voice the rights of children and the importance of them to have the best education possible. They want all children to be included with a wonderful education; no matter their financial status. Additionally, information that I have grasped from this website is that there is a major need for congress to withheld from cutting investments funds in early education. If not, more of our children will be in prison in their later years and the cost for that is much more than investing in education programs.
 

Will the members of congress do what's best for our children or continue to overlook the positive benefits they can gain if children are provided with a rich education?

I guess we will have to wait and see........

International Contacts: Part II

Are we aware that millions of children in other countries are not enrolled in school?

This is in fact what I have learned from my professional contact from UNICEF. There is a estimate of over 57 million primary school aged children who are not in school, and has been little progress of bringing them back. Sub Saharan Africa, unfortunately, accounts for more than one half of this population. Most of these children are suffering from poverty, natural disasters, displacements, diseases, gender, and being exposed to child labor just to name a few. Girls who experience inequality and poverty are affected the most due to having less access to education because of their locations or their families simply cannot cover the cost for their education.

Sad right?

On a brighter note, excellence and equity is the forefront of UNICEF's discussion. As part of their equity strategy, they are working on getting down to the bottom of why so many children are out of school. The financial crisis and lack of funds have denied out of school children their human right to a good education. Because of their commitment to children and their well being, UNICEF has created programs that will ensure all children with access to a stabled education, to produce a healthy future.  Some of those programs include:

*Education for All
*Millennium Development Goals
*World Education Forum's Dakar Framework for Action
*A World Fit for Children
*United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
*School Fee Abolition Initiative

"Universal access to quality education is not a privilege - it is a basic human right." -UNICEF

Exploring CDF (Children's Defense Fund)

Exploring this organization is very helpful and encourages me to strive to make a difference. The section of their website that is relevant to my current professional development is the "Take Action" section and here is why;
Being an advocate and the voice for our children is very important to me. The "Take Action" tab guides you to reach out to elected officials, demanding them to commit to helping and providing for children. 

As I was reading information on their website, I came across statements that made me think about an issue in a new way:
"Each week, 350 children and teens are killed or injured by guns; enough to fill 14 more classrooms of 25 students. What have we become as a people when even in the face of such sin and suffering, we continue to protect guns before children?"
This indeed makes much sense, as many of our children around the world are killed or injured every year from guns and violence. It is unfortunate that some of our children are not present in the classroom setting because their lives have been taking away so sudden, or in some cases, some are in prison due to having access or using a gun.


In one of my previous post, I shared that Hillary Clinton has contributed to this organization a great deal. As I continue to read about her dedication for children, this adds to my understanding of how politicians support the early childhood field. In fact, Children's Defense Fund (2012) stated that, "In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) to assist working families with the cost of providing child care."

A  new insight that I have gained from this website regarding issues and trends in the early childhood field, is that children who experience poverty and are African American or Latino, are at a higher risk of going to prison in their later years. CDF offers prevention and intervention programs for the youth, guiding them towards college and a more positive adulthood.

God, please protect our youth and future leaders.....

Children's Defense Fund http://www.childrensdefense.org/index-1.html

Great News!

Well, almost.

 After failing to receive feedback and collaborations from organizations that I have contacted through e-mails, I finally decided to call one of the organizations for better results. I called UNICEF directly and had to wait over 15 minutes for a representative to take my call. The reason being is because they were experiencing high call volumes. After the wait was over, I had the opportunity to communicate with Laura Priette. She stated that she was not the person I needed to talk to however, and left a note to the appropriate professional with my name and number, who I can collaborate with throughout the rest of the course. Laura stated that the person should be contacting me soon, but I have yet to hear from her. Laura mostly deals with taking donations for UNICEF but wanted to help me as much as possible with questions I had regarding the organization. While on the phone, she collaborated with me that UNICEF is very sensitive about children and families who are going through poverty and strives to contribute to their needs in every way. Access to clean water, a good education, and medical attention is just a few of the contributions they provide. She shared that throughout the world, children will fail tremendously in their education if their health and well being is not in the best shape. Laura has not met the families who are struggling through poverty personally, but the stories that are shared from her co-workers and volunteers are very touching and encourages her to continue to make a difference in the organization.

I have learned that poverty is a very serious issue and should not be taken lightly. So many children across the world are suffering from starvation and because of this, their education suffers. I always say, if the brain is not healthy, a child cannot perform to his/her fullest potential.

I thanked Laura and told her I really appreciate her for taking out her time to communicate with me about this issue. Hopefully I will hear from the other professional soon to receive more helpful insights.

Stay tuned.....

CDF Organization

http://www.childrensdefense.org/

The organization I have selected as a resource and to stay current with their events is the Children's Defense Fund. As mentioned in my previous post, I was employed with a Freedom School program in Jackson, Mississippi for a summer. Although I loved working with the children and staff, I was not aware of the background regarding the program and will now use this opportunity to study the program and to view what their main goals consist of.

CDF focuses on lifting children out of poverty, abuse, and makes sure that all children have access to quality education and health care. They also advocate for children to be their voices and to ensure that people around the nation will know that children are always a priority. In fact, CDF pays close attention to minority children and those with special needs. That is to say, this resource is related to this week's topic as Dr. Grace mentioned that the minority is now becoming the majority.

One current event that caught my attention is that Hillary Clinton was once a staff, board member and chairwoman with CDF. This fall, the organization will honor her for her commitment and dedication towards the organization as an advocate. This is new insight for me; I had no idea that Hillary has made a huge contribution to the organization.





When I was employed as a summer worker for the program, we received shirts with this quote on the back. Isn't this the sweetest quote ever? :)

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing professional contacts around the world is very beneficial in the education field. One will have the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with others while forming relationships. Thus far, I have been unsuccessful in contacting anyone from the two websites that were provided in the blog resources. Firstly, I did not try to reach out to the two professionals outside the world until Wednesday. I was very focused on my discussion assignment at this time and had no idea what was to come for the blog assignment. Once I started my assignment, I emailed each of them introducing myself and what questions or concerns I had regarding their organizations. After emailing UNICEF, the organization emailed me the next day with the following message:

"Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your message.
Regrettably, due to the volume of such requests that we receive and the volume of work we have here at UNICEF's global headquarters, we cannot devote staff time to respond in depth to all messages. We greatly regret that this is the case.
However, we believe that our website is an excellent source of information on UNICEF-related issues. We would kindly encourage you to revisit our website (www.unicef.org) and, in the Search box, perform a search using key words related to your topic. That will yield many results and get you off to a very good start.
Again, we are sorry we cannot be of more direct assistance.
Sincerely,
UNICEF"

My next goal will include to contact them again and hope for better results. I have yet to hear from the other organzation and will continue to contact them. At this point, I will proceed with this approach and will not use alternative to part 1. Also, the website I will study is the Children's Defense Fund. While scanning through the other websites, it was a no brainier for me to choose this organization because I had the opportunity to work for them as a work-study student in college. This will be a perfect opportunity for me to research their goals and achievements and will remain current with their organization.

One helpful tip I will provide for my colleagues is to not hesitate to contact the professionals. Get a head start, as some organizations are very busy responding to others and may delay a reply to you.

This assignment will be very interesting; I'm ready for the new knowledge I will gain from my contacts around the world.