INTRODUCTION TO MY NEW INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

First I have to thank Farah S. Kamal who is from Karachi, Pakistan.  She is the Executive Director for iEARN in Karachi, Pakistan (www.iearnpk.org).  I am honored to have had Farah’s assistance in finding willing participants to correspond with for this course and in the future.  I became acquaintances with Farah indirectly while hosting and working with exchange students from Pakistan.

I also want to thank my friend, Greg Wright, who helped put me in contact with Paula Gray from Perth, Australia.  Greg was host father to one of her sons about five or so years ago and I was the area representative for the host family and student.

The first individual who has volunteered his time is Siddig Barech.  Siddig is a social worker and has been working as a Research Associate/Master Trainer and Monitoring/Evaluation Officer for the last three years in particular to the Early Childhood Education field as well as dealing with marginalized and children who are considered to be “at risk”.

Siddig also shared some of his experience and observation concerning poverty and malnutrition.  He stated that, in his opinion, poverty/malnutrition has caused multi-dimensional effects on the children’s learning/education/thoughts/personality development.  He has a lot more to say and I learned a great deal from just this one conversation and look forward to learning more.

Paula Gray has offered to assist me while we try and find someone willing to help in the field of early childhood education in Australia.  Paula is retired from the Department of Education and is currently spending time traveling with her husband.  Their next trip is to Alaska. 

Even though we are still in the beginning stage of communication, I am already appreciating the contact with others who feel the same way as I do about ECE and working with children who are considered to be “at risk”.  I have always been interested in learning about other countries and their views but have never had the opportunity to reach out to those in a professional context in the ECE field.

I have done some research in the past about the effects of poverty and low-income on families who need quality child care in order to hold down a job but have not done a lot of research, until now, on the effects regarding ECE.

From a child care research view, the increased use of child care by individuals who are unrelated to the family is increasing each year.  This increase is largely due to the changes in the social and economic fabric of the United States.  One of the challenges with the increased need for child care services is finding quality as well as affordable child care.  This is especially true for individuals who are single parents and are financially in a low-income bracket.  The importance of finding quality day care for children is that it offers the potential for positive psychological development for the children and their families (ajp.psychologyonline.org).

New insights I have gained from this week so far are, but not limited to, the estimated number of individuals and families who are considered to be at or below the poverty level; how many aspects of our lives and those of our families are affected by poverty (either directly or indirectly in many ways).  I tend to get carried away when I research so I will not post all I have found in this forum.

References

Day care for early preschool children: implications for the child and
       family. American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Day Care
       for Pre- School Children -- 150 (8): 1281 -- Am J Psychiatry.
       (n.d.). The American Journal of Psychiatry. Retrieved
       November 15, 2011, from
       http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/150/8/1281