Friday, March 22, 2013

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

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. 

 

Resource

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP). (n.d.). Knowledge for tackling childhood poverty. Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

Hogan, T.  (2012).  World Forum Foundation Video.  World Forum Foundation.  Retreived from www.worldforumfoundation.org.

3 comments:

  1. Hello,

    I am also waiting for a reply as well. Throughout the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre website, information gathers was extremely informational. In your blog I found interest in making sure that having an effect on child poverty has to start with child well being and the “child’s quality of life”. This is extremely essential because if the child only has community involvement and support without means of nutritional guidance, then the likelihood of that child staying in poverty can, in fact, increase. Having a healthy lifestyle along with daily fitness can go hand in hand with different organizations supporting the issue on eliminating poverty. Educating a child and placing support, guidance, and direction can lead to a child’s overall health development and increase positive success. Vast Post!

    Adrea Reavis~

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  2. Hi Quandra

    I think understanding poverty is very important to understand because it is a worldwide issue. I enjoyed the world forum foundation site and sharing information on other situations around the world, because it is important to know what other countries are doing to fix poverty and help children gain the education that they need.

    Pan

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  3. I enjoy reading your post and I have came to a positive conclusion
    that poverty is every citizen issues. We need to just put ourselves in a person shoes. I like that I has experienced being in poverty because dad and mom had 15 children. I remember just having gravy and bread that was poor, but we made it. I thank God that I support Feed the Children and Save the Children because I had walked a mile in poverty shoes.Enjoy your post.

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