Saturday, March 23, 2013

Getting to Know Your International Contacts


Well, disappointment has set in.  I didn’t hear back from any of the international professionals I contacted.  So I will proceed with the blog assignment and use the pod cast alternative.  This week I chose to listen to and learn about Irma Allen who is the chairperson of the Swaziland Environment Authority.  Swaziland is an interesting country.  It is the only country that continues to have a king.  It is a small kingdom between South Africa and Mozambique.

Ms. Allen is passionate about Early Childhood Education, specifically the nature dimension.  She feels there is a challenge to train community people to become teachers of young children.  Ms. Allen believes there are no classroom walls.  Nature is the classroom.  Teachers should rely on nature to teach children.  Nature includes the local environment, trees and the weather.  Teachers should further create respect for the environment.  Educating the children on the life and death in the environment is important.  An example given was decomposition of leaves and trees.

 
Childhood Policy Research and Policy Centre

I chose to learn about childhood poverty of children living in India. 

v  India accounts for 20 percent of the world’s out-of-school children.  Of those children nearly one third are under the age of 16. 

v  Caste, class, ethnicity and gender affect access to resources of all kinds.

v  Efforts for reform are being attempted.  In 2003, attempts to create a Child Policy for the state of Rajasthan were started with participation of civil organizations, donor agencies and academic groups.

 

References

World Forum Foundation


 
Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre


 

1 comment:

  1. Mary when reading your blog I found it interesting that we both did not hear from our professionals and both chose to research poverty in India. I found the information about India's poverty to be very discouraging. It is sad to hear how children in India are struck by poverty and how poverty has negative impacts of the female race. Thank you for sharing your information that you had found out about India.

    ReplyDelete