I was fortunate to make contact with two
international early childhood professionals from New Zealand and England the
first week of classes, but I am awaiting their response to the e-mail I sent on
Monday regarding the issue of poverty.
On Monday, I e-mailed both of my contacts explaining
how learning from someone who works in a different part of the world will help
me grow a professional early childhood educator. I continued to explain that in
the course that I am currently taking we have been examining different issues
that impact our programs and communities. I explained how this week that the
issues related to poverty are the focal point. I asked each contact to identify
any issues of poverty that they may encounter in their professional life. I
also asked them if they are aware of any initiatives or organizations that either
support poor children and families, or work that towards the elimination of poverty
in their community.
Due to the fact that I did not receive a response prior to today, I decided to do the alternate
assignment which was to visit the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and
Policy Centre to read about childhood poverty in one country, however the
website was not working. http://childhoodpoverty.org/
Since I could not access the website for the alternate assignment, I decided to do my own search on the issue of
childhood poverty in New Zealand. While searching, I came upon the website of
the Child Poverty Action Group. http://www.cpag.org.nz/about-us/
The Child Poverty Action Group was formed in 1994
out of the concern of the increasing level of poverty in New Zealand and the
effects that is has on children.
Guiding Principle:
Their guiding principle is the right of every child
to security, food, shelter, education and health care.
Core Objectives:
The Child Poverty Action Group’s Core Objectives is
to promote better policies for children and young people, to promote awareness
of the causes and consequences of child poverty, and to ensure all activities
and decisions respect other cultural perspectives.
The website has many resources such as articles,
papers, events and presentations that everyone has access to. There are many
topics that the website discusses such as; health, education, social security,
social hazards, household expenses, and tax policy. The website also identifies
effective ways that people can help.
I also found a great article, "Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand: Evidence for Action for further information if you are interested. http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/EAG/Final-report/Final-report-Solutions-to-child-poverty-evidence-for-action.pdf
I understand that people are busy and maybe my contacts required more time to think about the request regarding the issue of poverty. I hope they respond and if they do, I will update my Blog. :)
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you were able to make contact with your contacts in New Zealand and England. Hopefully, you will get a response soon on poverty. It would be very interesting to see how this effects early childhood in their country. The report you provided on poverty in New Zealand was interesting. One thing I found particularly interesting was breaking the report down to represent different cultures in New Zealand. They were able to pinpoint specific recommendations for the Maori and Pasifika families. Thanks for the sharing the information,
Tanya
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately critical issues burden by poverty culturally affects individual young children and their families around the world. Lacking proper education and health care amenities are common complexities for struggling families which sadly leads to many life destructions. Internationally public government officials have to contribute much more financially to ensure all families have sustainable resources in order to survive. I hope you continue to reach out to your professional contact in New Zealand to closely connect for vital experiences as it pertains to issues and trends from a global perspective!
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you were able to make contact with New Zealand and England sources. If children have a nourishing balanced meal in the middle of the day they will not only be healthier, and less hungry, they will learn better. As better students they will be more cooperative, have a better future and likelihood of gaining jobs, keeping off benefits and out of prisons. Thanks for sharing!!