Childhood Poverty

I have not had success contacting an international professional. I had to do the Alternative Assignment which was to listen to the podcasts. I listened to a few and I was inspired by one and I clicked the link to the school website and this person was no longer the principal.

The woman was the principal of the only indigenous school in Canada. The school was not doing very well and administration retention was not great. She was inspired to help the indigenous population and make sure that they had access to quality education.

 I went to the Childhood poverty and policy centers page to learn about child poverty in another part of the world.

I chose to read up on poverty in China. I gained a few insights on the topic that were new to me. The website stated that most of the urban poor residents are dependent on government aid. 98% of poor children are receiving an education. Their parents do not want their  economic status to affect the education of their children. However, this education is often times not a high quality program.

Of the findings on the website, the article suggested ways to help China reduce its poverty level. One of these suggestions is to increase parents' ability to guarantee a better current standard of living through enhanced re-training opportunities, business development and increasing minimum wage ( Childhood Poverty and Policy Center)

Reference
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/
www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php

Sharing Web Resources

I chose the Save the Children Organization. I signed up to receive their newsletters also. The link to the website is http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6146355/k.24E9/Who_We_Are.htm

The organization's focus is on helping children and their families. They respond to natural disasters and conflict. They aim to help children with daily struggles such as poverty, hunger, literacy and disease. They advocate for child protection and survival, education, health and nutrition, and hunger and likelihoods.

The first newsletter that I received is asking for donations to help them reach their summer goal. When I signed up for the newsletter, the website stated that newsletters will contain personal stories about the children they help from the workers that help them. I look forward to my next newsletter.

Establishing Professional Contacts

To begin my search for professional contacts, I searched on the Global Alliance of NAEYC website. I wanted to search for a professional in Africa and one in Spain. It did not take long to find the professionals and I was very excited to contact them. I wrote down the e-mail addresses and attempted to mail them from my university mail. I wrote a e-mail and attempted to send it to both contacts. The e-mail I sent to a professional in Morocco was returned immediately. I check to make sure that I had the correct e-mail and I did. It was a bit discouraging. The second e-mail was returned a while after the first. So I re-thought my strategy and I looked on the organization website next to the professional from Spain. I found another name with contact information that I attempted to e-mail. It was not returned right away, but after 4 hours, my e-mail notified me that it was still attempting to send the e-mail.
I am not having the best luck with the international e-mail addresses. I will keep trying because I am looking forward to contact with an early childhood professional in another part of the world. However, if I cannot reach anyone soon, I may have to do the alternative assignment.

The organization that I chose is Save the Children. I was inspired by my past work with children in  a domestic violence shelter and also the article about early childhood and health. : The foundations of lifelong health are built in early childhood in our course resources section. I signed up to receive the newsletter from Save the Children as well. I am excited to learn about the organization.