Getting to Know your International Contacts-Part 2

The Global fund for children website is a good resource for those professional that are interested in working with international children and families as well as other international organizations. As an early childhood professional and a graduate student it was helpful to learn about other countries that are having similar issues and trends in the early childhood education as well as children and families living in poverty. Their model is to get small amounts of money into the hands of innovative community leaders who are working with the world’s most vulnerable children and youth (The Global Fund for Children 2012). I was able to watch a documentary about Josephine Ndao, she is a Global Fund for Children’s program officer for West Africa. She was talking about her experience regarding her recent trip to Nigeria and Burkina Faso to visit current and prospective GFC grantee partners. One insight I gained from her podcast was that middle school age children are very sexual active. I know this is an issue that affects every country and every family with teenagers living in the household, but it is usually a factor with children that was exposed to sex at a young age. For example many children in Haiti are victims of sexual abuse from a member in their household or a close family friend. Another insight I gain is that women in Nigeria do not have any value. one of the girls in the video say that Nigeria men think that woman are good for sex only and for this reason most young girls start having sexual activity at a very early age. Watching the podcast makes me think about Haiti, the same thing is happing in Haiti where young girls are sexually activity with men that could be their father. Another insight I get from the website is that they want to make a difference in the children life. They want to help children get better education, they want children to move out of slavery, as well as they want children to have the opportunity to live in a better environment.

Center on the Developing Child Harvard university website is about learning the issues and trends matter in the early childhood education field. They have many articles that can enhance our knowledge as a professional in the early childhood education field such as working page articles, they are great to read and I had the opportunity read a few from my previous classes and I taught they were very good to read because it make you think out of the box. Most of the information from the Center on the Developing Child Harvard university website is about children and families from all over world. We get to learn about their life style as well as their culture, values, and many more.

It was nice to learn about fourth grades students from The Nueva School that want to make a difference by working together to help improve the issues and trends that are affecting children and families on a regular basis. Those are motivated to raise money to help GFC’s Catapult project. According to Global Fund for Children (2012), the group of children spends three days making handcrafted bookmark to sell and raise about $466 which help about 340 girls in India through education and life skills training. Overall I learn a lot by exploring both website and that a little bit of help does count.