Establishing Professional Contacts

Part 1: Establishing Professional Contacts

In preparation for this task I sent emails the contacts listed in the blog resources section. The first organization that I contacted via email is UNICEF Australia. I lived and worked in Australia for a year and have seen ways in which this organization has a positive effect on early childhood learners. While living in Brisbane, I saw an issue common to one we have in Canada. Often the First Nations Peoples of the country, end up thrown into classrooms without the language, culture or the means to afford the requirements they need for their children. In Canada, our first nation’s peoples are often moved from Northern Reservations into larger city centers and are expected to “fit in” or “assimilate” into a world they do not know or understand. This is very much the same for Australian Aboriginals sent from small Northern communities. The website states: “UNICEF research shows that 10.9 per cent of children in Australia live in relative poverty. The most at-risk groups are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children in out-of-home care and children of asylum seekers” (www.UNICEF.org). UNICEF advocates for these and ALL children and provides funding for children in need. I heard back from this organization and they also made me aware of their blog and told to me to sign up for their newsletter, which I did. There is a section for “can’t find what you are looking for?” questions, which I think will really help with this endeavor. The organization will direct you to an article to help answer questions or will email you back with a response.

The second organization I reached out to is the NAYEC- Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children. I emailed the NAYEC to explain the blog task requirements and also signed up for the Newsletter. To be honest, coming from Canada before my courses at Walden I was not at all familiar with the NAYEC we have the Canadian Association for Young Children instead. I took time to explore several articles and the blog but still have not heard back from them. I think that I will be able to continue with this task and will not need to do the alternate task. I started making contact on Thursday so it has only been three days, I believe that I will hear back before the next blog task.

Part 2: Expanding Resources

For Part 2, I am very interested in looking at two websites. I signed up for the newsletter for “The Global Fund for Children” and read some of the recent blog posts and watched some of the recent videos. I live in my own little bubble and cannot imagine the torment that some of the children in the world face. How ignorant and sheltered I am to the real perils that still exist for children all over the globe. I watched the Valentine’s Video on the website and it brought me to tears. It showcases children who were once child soldiers and are now students, girls who were once not allowed an education enrolled in school. The video showed children who overcame slavery as well as children who have overcome natural disasters and are now safe. The other night my boyfriend and I watched the movie, “12 years a slave”, I cried and thought about how awful those times were- its unimaginable that children are still facing these living conditions every day! The second website I want to look into further is “Because I am a Girl”.  Here are some statistics highlighted on the website:

70% of the one billion people living in extreme poverty are women and girls.

Girls are 3x more likely to be malnourished than boys.

Globally, 65 million* girls do not attend primary or secondary school.

There is an urgent need to stand up for the rights of millions of girls. In the poorest regions of the world, girls face double discrimination and unique barriers to survival and development, simply because they are young and female.

But when girls attain their basic human rights, they will:

Be 6x less likely to be married as children

Have 2.2 fewer yet healthier children

Increase their contributions to household income by 18%

I truly believe that this website is catering to a much needed cause, one that I want to be a part of. 

References:

NAYEC. Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved from: http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance

Plan International Canada Inc. 2014.  “The Plan, Because I am a Girl”. Retrieved from: www.becauseiamagirl.ca

The Global Fund for Children. Retrieved from: http://www.globalfundforchildren.org . (Newsletter: http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&Itemid=340)

UNICEF Australia. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/australia.html. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html