The area of the world I have chosen was the Eastern and Southern Africa. The country I have chosen was Ethiopia. The reason why I have chosen Ethiopia was because I see many commercials that focus on people who are starving, have no means of getting proper medical care and sadly live in poverty.
The country of Ethiopia has many challenges that young children go through. Children are not prperly educated and most parents are not well educated either, many children live in famine and are not properly fed nor do they have clean water, and the one good thing is that pneumonia death rates are down. I feel that it is important for young children to receieve a solid education so they can get out of poverty and improve their lives and the lives of others. One particular article I have read was titled "UNICEF Plans to Expand Innovative Pre-School Programme" which focuses on how they want to remove barriers by helping those in preschool obtain knowledge so they can enter the first grade with success. There is a programme called "Getting Ready For School: A Child-to-Child Approach! The programme is low costing and it suppliments preschool education so they can be better prepared for first grade and for other grades. It is important that each child learns at a young age so they can be successful in school and in life.
The way that these experiences might have an effect on children's emotional well being and development is that if a child attends school hungry and are living in poverty they do not do well in school. The child is worried about whether they will be eating today or if they will be going hungry again. Children who leave the hosue with no food in their stomachs are not able to focus. Children who attend school wearing dirty clothes or clothes that do not fit them are afraid that other people are going to tease by others. A child who does not have the proper medical care can spread diseases and if they are sick they cannot get better. It is important for children to get immunizations so they can prevent getting sick and not spread diseases to others.
My peronal reflection is that I feel we should help these other nations who need help. I feel it is important to educate others in order to see these countries be successful and to live out of poverty. I feel if we can help these nations maybe we can try to help these nations become stronger. On a professional level I feel it is important to educate people in order for them to live better lives. I feel that as educators we need to hold national conferences in order to help these third world countries. It is important to teach these children English. I have a cousin who is living in Korea and is teaching English to elementary age children. She loves working with them because they want to learn.
Source:
UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html
There is a wonderful book called "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.". It is the true story of an African boy who studies and then builds a windmill to bring electricity and water to his family. It is an inspiring story about how the innovation of one child can overcome the most horrible conditions.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, when reading about the challenges of children around the world, it makes me realize how much I take for granted every day. We have things in such plentiful amounts, like pencils, that some children have never even dreamed of having access to.
Darlene, you are so right - if a child is chronically hungry, tired, worried, or scared, they are not going to be able to learn as well as they should. They simply don't have the intellectual and emotional room left.
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