Since I did not receive a response or feedback from
the contacts I initiated a couple of weeks ago I have to do the alternative
assignment for blog on the World Forum Foundation. The World Forum website this week had a video
that was about the 10th anniversary forum that was held in Belfast
as well as several presenters from the forum talked about the forum, their
experiences and the importance of the World Forum Foundation. At this forum there were 600 thousand people
from 90 different countries that came together with the same mindset of the
well-being of all children. At the Forum
convention it is not all workshops, childcare educators and advocates are
encouraged to share their passions and culture whether it be through song or
dance throughout the event.
There are several speakers in the podcast who speak
on their experience and involvement with the World Forum Foundation. Two speakers of the podcast Dr. Kishor
Shrestha, Professor at Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur, Kathmandau located in Nepal
and Dr. Wayne Eastman, Professor at the College of the North Atlantic located
in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, both have been
presenters and actively involved in the World Forum for years. It as through the World Forum that these to
gentleman forged a friendship and four years ago founded the first volume of
journal of child development called Journal of Early Childhood Development.
Today they are on volume 4. Another
speaker of the podcast was Amelia Gambetti, International Network Coordinator
for Reggio Children for Reggio Emili in Italy, has always been a presenter at
the World Forum. Ms. Gambetti stressed
how she loves attending the Forum because of the knowledge she gains from
them. She says, “Always learning how
important it is to share without any presumptions or egos. Being with other educators from all over the
world everybody is eager to share and collect information that can help all of
us to continue to stick together, to stay together, to guide together in order
to invest in quality education.” (World Forum, 2012)
The final presenter I will discuss is the President
of Ireland, President Mary McAleese.
President McAleese made the following statement that I feel is very
impactful to any one working in the early childhood field. “We only get one go around with our children
so we are the engravers of their lives have to know and be taught how to
engrave. But good news is on the horizon
and that is the compassion of a person and to change and grow. Give the benefit of your experience and to
have this global resource of good practice, best practice to learn what things
don’t work, things that work, to share with one another.” (World Forum,
2012) This is powerful to me because I
have never thought of myself as an engraver on anyone’s life. But as I look back on my years in the field
and how I have come around children or their family and how they remember me
and the care and love that I gave them I can now see the impact I had on their
life.
As I read the Child Poverty website and reflected on
the World Forum website I can see how much poverty there is all over the world
and the number of people committed to improving not just the education of
children but the quality of life a child has.
This includes ensuring every child receives a well-rounded education and
has more than just the bare necessities of life. A child living in poverty dies from lack of
health care, proper nutrition and generally receives little to no
education. But the Childhood Poverty
Research and Policy Center is concerned with reducing and possibly eliminating
the number of children and families living in poverty. While there are small strides toward this
goal additional work must be done.
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