International Contacts

This week I had the opportunity to listen to a podcast from the World Forum Foundation Radio (http://sarah-dev.worldforumfoundation.com/world-forum-radio/). Episode 3 was a talk by Delfena Mitchell who is the Director of Liberty Children’s Home near Belize City. She works with young children who have been abandoned or abused. During her talk, Delfena tells a story about a little boy named Joseph. Joseph had been abused by his grandmother and hadn’t talked in over a year. After spending a couple of weeks with him in the gardens, horse backing riding and homeschooling him Joseph began to talk again. In just a matter of weeks in a loving environment, Joseph would open up and talk about his experiences. Delfena helps many children like Joseph each day at Liberty Children’s Home. To learn more you can visit her website http://www.libertychildrenbelize.org/ .

Unfortunately I have not yet heard anything else back from the e-mails I sent to other early childhood professionals around the world. In the mean time I have been learning about the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIPS). CHIPS is a joint effort between Save the Children and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre. Together they are working to end childhood poverty and educate people about the problems and causes associated with poverty.

From reading a report of childhood poverty in Rajasthan, India I learned:

1.  India accounts for the majority of the poor in South Asia. There were 260 million people living in poverty there in 2000.
2. 28% of homes in Rajasthan used pipe drinking water compared to 89% in urban areas 
3.  Rajasthan has been prone to water scarcity and drought

I am thankful that CHIPS conducts reports such as this to take a close look at the needs of a country in order to best support the people.