Sharing Web Resources

Hello,

Today I had the opportunity to browse Save the Children website at in-depth and found a section that discusses about emergency situation. Currently, there are many locations in this world that encounter diasters like war, tsunami, earthquake, protest, and many other diasters that place young children in a very threatening positions. Save the Children described how Mattel and Mattel's Children foundation contributed $500,000 to Save the Children's Proactive Diasters Preparedness and Responses to Crises. I decided click on Mattel's website to explore and learn more about its services.

Save the Children described Mattel:
  "Mattel and the Mattel Children’s Foundation have long supported Save the Children’s relief and recovery work after many major disasters and long-term agency programs in health, education and early childhood development, the company is now also committed to supporting Save the Children’s new children in emergencies initiative."

I browsed Mattel's website and found all information about toys. I did not see anything related to sponsoring organizations that provide services to meet children's need. Then I decided to check Mattel's annual report out. Here is what I learned:  Mattel contributes two percent pre-tax profit annually to support philanthropic activities, establishes partnership with some organizations such as Children's Hospital-UCLA  , and contributes one on one volunteer.

As I learned Mattel's involvement in contributing fund and toys to international countries in crises, I realized that they are rather aware of the signiciant of adequacy care and education for the children. Mattel provides toys to children in crises for the purpose of comfort, education, and the nature of child's stimulaneous. Partnership has critical role in improving children's lives worldwide, which I think is a trend in early childhood field.  No one can accomplish alone. It is a huge responsibility.  Partnership offers venues that can be used to help others when one does not have a particular subject to offer.

 (http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6596881/k.F56F/Mattel_and_Mattel_Children8217s_Foundation_Commit_500000_to_Save_the_Children8217s_Proactive_Disaster_Preparedness_and_Responses_to_Crises.htm

Getting to know your international contacts Part 2

As a part of this assignment, I visited Harvard University's "Global Children's Initiative" website to explore its site thoroughly. The website was quite outstanding with supplying information on how Center on the Developing Child place its support throughout the world. After browsing the site, I learned a quite few things. A main key of Global Children's Initiative is building and training global educators, leaderships, policy makers, individual researchers, and insitutions that are focusing on early childhood.

First, Harvard University and its Center on the Developing Child take an endeavor across the world to educate and model the framework to build research/work to address the health and developmental needs of the children.

Second, Center on the Developing Child contributes partial funds to Un Buen Comienzo ("A Good Start") in Chile. Un Buen Comienzo is a project that gives an opportunity to improve early childhood education to four to six years olds and teacher professional development. This project has a goal to use its four demonstrations to help approximately sixty schools.

(Dr. Jack Shonkoff)

Third, there was a first-ever “World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education: Building the Wealth of Nations,” conference hosted by UNESCO (Russian Federation) in Moscow this past fall 2010. Dr. Jack Shonkoff was the keynote of the conference.  This was a great opportunity for professionals to get together to learn and discuss venues to develop policy and practice.  In this website, it stated: 

"According to a UNICEF report in 2006, more than 30 governments had established national early childhood development policies, and over 70 countries had some type of national commission to coordinate such programs across ministries and sectors. However, much remains to be done: More than half of the world’s governments still do not have any formal policy or coordination mechanism in place related to early childhood development"

This inspired me. It was wonderful to learn that there are Early Childhood advocates across the world and how people come together regardless their backgrounds to pave a better future for young children.

Poverty struck everywhere including United States, but at vary degree of severity. For most part of the world, poverty bonded to people and that hindered many opportunity for growth.  From what I read, policy and practice have not yet craved in stones for more than half of the world. This means that the equity and excellence of the early childhood education are in a very different position in these countries than it is in United States and a few other well-developed countries.

I certainly hope to see thriving policy and practice in Early Childhood Education in these parts of the world with robust growth and successes. Perhaps, their policy and practice will be much more defined with stability that we would ever imagine.

I was disappointed to find that the audio interview with Dr. Jack Shonkoff did not come with transcript. I would have liked to know what the interview was all about.

Sharing Web Resources

Save the Children is an international website that provide information on how the organization supports families and children across the world. For this assignment, I decided that I would like to share a resource called Campaigns to Help Children in Need (http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6147403/k.3306/Campaigns_to_Help_Children_in_Need.htm). Because this information is relevant to my current professional development, I am learning much more about how children's lives are being impacted by economists, politicans, and neuroscientists. At a point, I did not realize how much children's lives are easily flourished or destroyed.

Campaigns to Help Children in Need emphasized that when children's needs are being met, they will be more likely to survive and success. Save the Children organization quoted: 

"Of the children under the age of 5 who die each year, almost 2/3 could be saved with the simple low-cost interventions delivered by health workers in clinics and in their communities. With attention from developing country governments and donor nations, we can help them bring lifesaving care to more hard-to-reach communities and make the survival of children a reality worldwide."

This statement caught my attention. It clearly named politicans, economists, and neuroscientists by using 'governments' and 'donor nations.'  These professionals have the "power" to make the differences in children's lives by making policies, creating new vaccinations, and making investments to increase the quality of their lives. This made me realized that every nation needs economists, neuroscientists, and politicans who advocate children and step up to make the differences. Their positions are highly recognized and demanded.

Our home country is undertaking a major recession that is impacting the young children in every way such as nutrition, education, lifestyle, home circumstance, and so forth. Although our country may not show the worst aspect of children's lives as other countries that are shown through Save the Children organization, I feel that it is imperative for our country to encourage economists, neuroscientists, and politicans who are strong advocates for early childhood education to fight for our children by using evidences and models that demonstrate the significant differences between increase investments and lack of investments in early childhood education.

I am starting to believe in advocating by choosing right people (economists, neuroscientists, and politicans) as Save the Children stated, "urgent action to implement quality education and build peace in conflict-affected countries." Keep in mind that conflict-affected countries are common across the world, but it does not mean to exclude countries like United States. We need to recognize the "conflict" and its impact on children.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

For this assignment, I studied http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo and selected to focus on India. A good friend of mine is the leading reason why I am interested in learning about India. He is an Indian and a great storyteller.

The poverty in India stumped me. Apparently, I did not realize that India has 1.03 billions people residing in the country. In 2000's, there were approximately 260 millions of people living in poverty. There is a laundry list of why poverty occurs in this country. To name a few, gender, education, and rural play roles in poverty. As a female, I am truly thankful for the opportunity to explore equality in United States. Unlike United States, females are considered unworth in India. Therefore, females encounter more severe discriminations and are often uneducated. Education is a major issue, because many young children work. Often they do not have the access to the school facility, so work becomes their routine. Once indians recieve education, their employment opportunity rises.  Lastly, rural has pros and cons. Rural is a place where people grow their food, but it leads to social isolation. Social isolation often brings poverty based on little education, lack of access, and much more. 

The life in Indian is very hard to fathom. Perhaps, I've been turning a blind eye to many countries that are perhaps worse off than United States. This saddened me. Now that I've learned abundantly about the poverty, so I hope to advocate for our young children in our country for a better life to prevent further destructions (ie: health, mental, physical, emotional, and cognitive).

Sharing Web Resources

We must become the change we want to see.
     —Mahatma Gandhi, Indian philosopher

Save the Children is an organization I selected to study and pursue based on its vision of changing the world starting with children. Save the Children (http://www.savethechildren.org/) first recognize adults from diverse backgrounds who are commit to accountability, innovation and collaboration to help children and families across the world. How the organization "save" the children follows with providing meals, hopes, opportunities to become literate, and ways to fight poverty and medical to fight off the diseases. Save the Children has official offices in United States, Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East/Eurasia, and Africa. The organization has specialized programs: child protection, Education and Child Development, Health and Nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and Livelihoods to supply specific supports in different circumstances.

Save the Children offers opportunities for individuals who are interested in making the differences in children and families' lives. The opportunities include: sponosor a child, volunteer, career, and through donations.

Personal Notes on Save the Children:

What drew my attention to this organization was its participation in the diversity. Currently, Save the Children is focusing on particular areas such as Libya and Egypt where turmoil is happening to provide assistances to children such as shelter, meals, sense of secure in midst of the voilence and traffickers. The issues in different areas are just about the same in our homeland with exceptions. Children in these mentioned locations are at higher risk in became victims of war and politics. It is easy to turn a blind eye to a certain circumstance that happens in our homeland in which we recognize is happening in other countries. Chilren are our future who will build and destroy the kingdoms when we grow old and pass, so it is imperative that we understand the changes and issues. Then we can guide them through the changes with proper knowledge. 

Quotes:

 " Every four seconds a child survives thanks to the basic healthcare provided by local health workers."

"one child dies every three seconds largely from preventable and treatable causes due to the lack of basic health care." (Save the Children emphasized that there is a great need for health workers.)

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing professional contacts and expanding resources seemed like a challenging assignment. I was not sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I always wanted to learn more about international countries. I decided to contact a member of The Global Alliance of NAEYC in Canada and a member of UNICEF in Honduras. As of now, I have not yet heard anything from either one. I'm hoping something will come along later this week.

Honestly, I have hardly ever browse international organizations that focus on early childhood education. As a part of this assignment, I came across to:

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6540957/k.AD3E/HrNew_Volunteers.htm

I started to realize that there are rich information in different websites. I selected Save the Children based on the fact that it supports children in 120 countries including United States. Through this, I hope to learn much more about Early Childhood Education.

My Supports

There is a laundry list of factors in my environment that supports my emotional, physical, social and practical needs. The factors are much more complex, because I have a disability and I require certain kinds of accommodations.

People who support my needs:

My sisters provide supports. One of them proofreads and edits my papers that I prepare for classes.  My English is not as elegant as hers. I speak in two different languages, which took me a very long time to become proficent in English at average level and I am still learning. They contact me every now and then to give me updates on family issues.

My parents provide tremendous supports. Although they are divorced, I maintain contact with them separately. My mother had always fought for me to have the access to a high quality education. In this day, she continues to give support such as mother-daughter conversation where I can vent all my problems to her. She teaches me some life lessons that I may not have experienced yet. As for my father, he does not provide a lot of support. However, he is there for me when I want a fatherly advice. Both of them learned American Sign Language for my sake so I could have communication access at home and build a relationship with them.

My husband, Kristopher, gives me numerous supports such as help with chores around the house, emotional and physical supports in our marriage, a friendship and relationship support where we can converse about different things, and he provides monetary for our practical needs. We also share common ground--our deafness and we are able to relate our obstacles and accomplishments.

Katie, one of several good friends, gives me the support in building friendship. We have been friends since we were 11 year olds. If I can't communicate my fears, worries, frustrations or just want to talk with someone else, she is the person I turn to. We share advice and support each other through hard and good times. She is also deaf and that gives me the freedom to befriend with who shares the same language.

Communication modes that support me:

American Sign Language is my primary language. I learned this language at age of 4 months old. It is a venue for me to articulate my needs, wisdoms, and to be a person. Without this, I would have a hard time communicating with others with speech alone. American Sign Language also connects me to others who are "like" me.

Blackberry Torch is a great technology that permits me to communicate with my relatives, friends, spouse, and employers rapidly regardless of my disability. I use text daily to communicate with my husband, parents, sisters, friends, and neighbors. Without this, I would have to heavily depend on someone with normal hearing to communicate for me as a third party and that hinder my independence. I am an independent person and would not like to depend on someone.  It is percieved as negative and pity. I do not want that on my shoulders.

Facebook is a great place to maintain contact with friends who live far and near. I find it very blessing, because many of my friends who are deaf and/or hard of hearing live far away and have their own lives. This allows me to interact with them virtually. This also present an opportunity for me to build friendship with some hearing people who have no signing skills, but are interested in developing friendship. Without this, my world would be much more isolated. I live in a hearing world and it is already difficult for me to build friendship with "normal" people.

Sorenson Videophone is a amazing advanced technology that functions as a telephone with video. I use this to communicate with hearing people using video relay service operators who translate sign language into spoken English and the another way around. I also use this to call my friends (deaf) and chat with them on videophone. Again, if this did not exist, I would have to use mail and depend on someone to become a third party communicator. This would not allow me to develop a personal relationship with others. A third party is always an awkward aspect of the relationship.

 American Sign Language Interpreters are wonderful people! Interpreters open communication access for me at medical appointments, in classroom (mainstream), church, workshops, and many other places. Interpreters translate spoken English into American Sign Language (and another way around). I cannot imagine living in a world without interpreters. I attended public school to recieve high quality education during high school years with three different interpreters. If I did not have that, I wouldn't be as intelligent as I am right now. I would have been developmentally delayed in many areas. Interpreters allow me to have the same access as others in gathering information, interacting with others, and enjoying some entertainments (play, etc).

Community support:

Walden University is a higher education program that allows me to study beyond Bachelor degree level using on-line services (ie: class). It also permits me to interact with others without placing a third party. Walden University supports my learning and network. Through Walden University, I am able to build my English proficiency as well as etiquette. Walden University opens accessiblities for me where I can be a normal person like everyone else.

Gallaudet University in Washington, DC is the world's only liberal arts university for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The university is a place where I could communicate with anybody in American Sign Language regardless if the person is deaf, hearing, or hard of hearing. I recieved my Bachelor degree from this university. All faculty instructed in American Sign Language, which was a wonderful access for me as a former student to gather higher education information. I am currently an adjunct instructor at this university, which is also where I earn small portion of my income. Without Gallaudet University, I would not be able to find a job or met my husband.

Independent Bible Church is a place where my husband and I attend to learn about God and His Words. It is also a place that provides American Sign Language interpreters who translate God's messages from pastors and others to us. Through this church, we met some families who we became friends with and share resources. If there is no church, we would not be able to proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that God is real and true, to learn the right ways of living, to develop faith and trust in God who created Heaven, Earth and people. Without the church, we would not have known so many friendly people.

This is our home. This is a place where we sleep, shower, eat, hang out with friends and family, and it provides the security. We feel safe and comforted in this house. It is a place where we can be ourselves. Since we are deaf, we can be rather loud or make noises that we do not realize are annoying to others. It is a home for all who need a place for refugee purpose. Without this house, we would struggle with maintaining the noises, especially in apartment complex. We would not be able to feel at ease if it was not for this house.

Entertainment accessibility:

Closed Caption is very important to me. It allows me to access to the same information and entertainment that others possess. I can enjoy television shows, movies, and news using closed caption. At movie theaters, there are selected major films being provided with closed caption for a short period of time. Without closed caption, I would be bored out of my mind trying to lip-read on teleivision. I would also be far behind on the world events. 

Pet

This is our puppy named Willow. She is a mutt. Her mix-breeds: black lab, golden retriever, st. benard, and blood hound. Right now, we recognize black lab and blood hound.  She has large paws, so we are not sure how big she is going to be within a year. She is 3 months old now. Although she is a puppy, she does not supply much of support except for a good exercise. I hope that she will become a hearing dog for us when she matures. That would be another form of a support system in my life. 

All of these factors are great benefits in supporting my independence. Without these, I would not be this far in my life as a unique person with deafness. I already face barriers daily, which is hardly ever a pleasant thing to experience. Therefore, I am grateful for the supports I receive every day from people, community, and technology. Everyone on Earth has some kind of support system whether it is large or small. It can be as simple as a babysitter or a childhood friend who one never sees, but hears from once in a while.