Getting To Know My International Contacts

I am continuing to have difficulty contacting international contacts in the Early Childhood field. I have emailed several contacts using the email addresses from the various websites and have yet to find true success. I continued until earlier this week when I made contact with a formal director of  Pastoral del Nino project, Shannon Peairson. Shannon Peairson recommended that I contact Ann Austin for more information. Ann Austin recommended that I contact Elizabeth U de Burro for more information. Elizabeth U de Burro was unable to participate in the weekly contact and finally linked me to the new director of Pastoral del Nino, Hermanna Mercedes Duarte. I have sent numerous emails to both email accounts but have not received a response for any questions. After receiving the run-around from all these individuals I decided to complete the alternative assignment focusing on poverty in China.

The company that I found the most interesting facing similar problems to the United States was China. For example, unemployment and poverty is higher in parts of China just like it is in the United States. The insights that I gained from studying this website include:

• China is the most populous country in the world (World Bank, n.d)
• By 2001, 5%  of country lived below the poverty line (World Bank, n.d)
• Rural poverty fell from 250 million in 1978 to 35 million in 2000 (World Bank, n.d.)
• Economic growth and poverty was higher in Western China (World Bank, n.d.)

The interesting fact that I found was that the poverty level fell sharply because of the cultural and technological advances in different areas of  China that were not readily available in the Western Part of the country. Many of the families were facing the same problems that we are currently facing in this country such as high unemployment and difficulty meeting the needs of their families.

Resources

National Center for Children In Poverty (n.d.) Retrieved on March 19, 2011 from http://www.nccp.org

World Bank (n.d). Retrieved on March 19, 2011 from http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/aag/chn

Sharing Web Resources

The web resource that I chose to study is National Black Child Development Institute and the web address is http://nbcdi.org/. The main reason that I decided to study this organization was because it was the only one list that I had not heard of and the news dealt with issues that are currently happening in the African American community. The primary focus of the organization is to "improve and advance the lives of Black children ad their families  through advocacy and education, " (National Black Child Development Institute, 2011). The organization focuses on using the community to build up families and children through education because all the children deserve a chance to do better.

The one issue/trend from the newsletter that caught my attention was the report on cuts Head Start funding. I am a Head Start employee that works in a facility that is facing cuts and sending representatives to Washington to lobby for the funds to remain. The National Black Child Development Institute encouraged parents and teachers to advocate for the federal Pre-K program that is facing the cuts because it provides free services to many minorities and provides opportunities for education of young children that many families can't afford to pay other places.

The web page provides resources and other archives that focus on bridging the gaps between ESL students and American born students to better help teachers meet the needs of the students. There are also other articles that focus on diversity, demographics, family health care needs and literacy. The website is packed with tons of resources that will benefit families and other early childhood education professionals.

Reference

National Black Child Development Institute (2011). Retrieved on March 11, 2011 from http://nbcdi.org/
(Newsletter: http//nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/)

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I must be honest, the first time I looked at this assignment it overwhelmed me because there were so many choices! Who would I choose? I wrestled with this questions for at least a day before narrowing down my choices to UNICEF Beijing and Global Alliance of NAEYC for South Africa. I began making contact by sending out several emails introducing myself and explaining my reason for contacting them. I have yet to receive any response from either one of these agencies. I have sent out another round of emails and hope to hear something in the coming week but I am prepared to contact another agency if I am not successful with these. I decided on UNICEF Beijing and Global Alliance of NAEYC for South Africa because I love reading and learning how education is viewed in different parts of the world. I believe that this information ca be helpful and can be used in the classroom or with future preschool teachers.

The second part of the assignment was far easier than the second because I love study websites. I wanted to pick a website that I have never visited from previous courses or other professional development opportunities. I decided on the National Black Child Development Institute which is located in Washington, DC. This website contains a newsletter which I completed my subscription and look forward to reading very soon. It also is reporting a current topic that is very personal to me, Head Start Funding Cuts. I am a Head Start employee and our program is facing budget cuts to various areas at this time. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and information learned from the website in this blog.