Poverty in Mexico and Nepal

            I chose to explore some of the information in Mexico and Nepal around poverty.

    When reading about the state of poverty with regards to children in Mexico, it seemed somewhat hopeful in that the government has instituted several social policy changes to try to decrease the number of children and families living in poverty.  Mexico is considered to be a medium to high country in its wealth and value, yet "regarding poverty measures based on monetary income, about 25% of Mexican children (10 million approximately) lived in conditions of food poverty in 2005; in other words, they lived in homes where income was insufficient to purchase the basic food basket. (UNICEF, 2008, p. 1)"  Children living in the rural areas and part of the indigenous population are living in much worse conditions (33%) compared to the general population (12%).  (UNICEF, 2008) The remote locations of the indigenous populations makes it difficult to get them to the different social services.
     There has been improvement and the government has it on its priority list of policy changes to markedly decrease the plight of these children.  Education through the middle school level is required and yet "40% of youth fifteen years old and above cannot read and write, 9.5% of the popula- tion aged 5 to 17 years does not attend school (2005 CONTEO survey), and close to 12.5% of the children and youth work, which corresponds to approxi- mately 3.6 million children (INEGI, 2008 – National Institute for Statistics and Geography). (UNICEF, 2008, p.2)"
   The report also mentioned that while a decreasing percentage of children are still  showing signs of stunting, a new public health nemesis "childhood obesity" is on the rise.
      The situation in Nepal is much worse.  "The biggest single deprivation that children face in Nepal is a lack of access to sanitation. It affects 55 per cent of Nepal’s children — around 6.4 million young people. Sanitation deprivation has a direct impact on children’s health. Diseases linked to inadequate supplies of safe water and bad sanitation are the leading cause of child morbidity in the country. (UNICEF, 2008, p. 86)" "The second biggest deprivation is lack of adequate shelter which affects a third of Nepal’s children.    Malnutrition rates in Nepal are a scandal. One in every two children under the age of five is considered to be stunted. This means around 850,000 children will probably face difficulties meeting their full intellectual potential. (UNICEF, 2010, p. 87)"
    Nepal, not having the wealth of Mexico, not only has high rates of poverty, but child protective services are almost non existent.  Startling statistics are emerging "only about a third of children have their births registered and nearly a third of children aged 5–14 years work as child labourers. More than 127,000 children aged 10–14 years are engaged as porters, domestic workers and some of the other worst forms of child labour.  There are also a growing number of street children. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Nepali girls and young women are trafficked to India every year. A large number of children are victims of violence and need support and justice. Child protection activities, however, are under-funded. (UNICEF, 2010, p.87)"  
     So while Mexico is seeing some success in combating the poverty rates, Nepal lacks the resources Mexico has and children are not only facing poverty, disease, malnutrition, but also hard labor, being sold to other countries, and abuse.  Reading about the plight of children in these other parts of the world makes me ache in my heart.  Something needs to be done.  As long as we are not faced with the true situation, it is easy for us to bury our heads in the sand and not use our social conscious to do something about it.  I have not decided yet what I am going to do, but I have to do something.  
 
   
 





Reference

UNICEF, 2008, Retrieved Mar. 19, 2016.  http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf, 

UNICEF, 2010, Retrieved Mar. 19, 2016 http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Nepal_Child_Poverty_Report.pdf

Exploring the Websites

I explored the position statement on the website for the Division of Early Childhood.  I found their position statement,   Responsiveness to ALL Children, Families, and Professionals: Integrating Cultural and Linguistic Diversity into Policy and Practice. I found it interesting that they discussed this cultural responsiveness at an organizational level pertaining to the recruitment and development of staff that reflect the cultures of their clients.  It also discussed their commitment to also be culturally responsive to its members and to reflect their membership in their leadership.  The last way they were exploring cultural diversity was in their services to children. “For optimal development and learning of all children, individuals who work with children must respect, value, and support the culture, values, beliefs, and languages of each home and promote the meaningful, relevant, and active participation of all families. (DEC, 2010, p. 2)”

Looking at cultural responsiveness from all of these perspectives is reflected in their purpose statement. “DEC strongly believes in the use of respectful, responsive, and evidence‐based practices with children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. These practices are critical to assessment and intervention, including practices with young children who are dual language learners and those who speak various dialects of English. These practices ensure that children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have equal access to educational services and learning opportunities. Equally important is that access occurs without diversity being viewed from a deficit perspective. (DEC, 2010, p. 5)” I was impressed at the thoroughness of the statement.

“Responsiveness grows from interpersonal relationships that reflect a mutual respect and appreciation for an individual’s culture, values, and language. Responsiveness must be both personal and organizational for optimal outcomes of development and intervention services. (DEC, 2010, p. 2)  This statement really speaks to me, it lays down the challenge to other organizations to meet their layered perspective.  The mental health organization I am working at is also conducting a layered implementation of the Sanctuary Model of Trauma Informed Care. 

Division of Early Childhood. (2010). Responsiveness to all children, families, and professionals: integrating cultural and linguistic diversity into policy and practice. Missoula, MT: Author.

Transforming Education starts with Pre-K is a short 6 minute video that was done in 2011 as a result of almost a decade of work by the Pew Charitable trust fund to leverage the research that shows how providing Pre-K to the most needy of children as well as every other child is an investment that is critical to future generations.  The recommendations on the video, now some 5 years later have come to fruition through state funded in preschool in many states.  I am not sure that I agree with the message, however, that universal Pre-K for 4 years olds is going to have the impact they expect.  The gap is already formed by the time they are 4 years old.  For the greater impact to occur, children need access to quality early care and education from day one.  This should not be met by institutionalizing children birth -4 like they have for the Pre-k system.  Young children need to be in small group responsive care and education, where children build strong attachments to consistent responsive caregivers/teachers.

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/multimedia/video/2011/pre-k-now-making-a-decade-of-prek-milestones

I have not heard back from my contact in the European affiliate yet, still waiting.

Early Childhood Abroad

I tried to connect with NAEYC and couldn’t because my membership is expired at the moment, so I looked for NAEYC affiliates abroad.  I found the European NAEYC Affiliate and posted on their chat board.  I will anxiously await a response.

I also tried to find the World Forum using the link in our resources section and was unable to get their via the link, I did an internet search for World Forum Foundation and was able to find it that way

I am going to explore the websites listed below for future blog assignments.

The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/
(Review also the position statements: http://www.dec-sped.org/Just_Browsing/Position_Statements_and_Papers )

Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now28067
(Newsletter: http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_alerts.aspx )

My Supports

I have many supports in my daily life that allow me to get through my days.   The first and foremost support that I receive daily is from God.  I rely heavily on my belief in God to give me the emotional supports I need.  My husband and family are all available to me whenever I need to talk with someone.  In my work, I rely heavily on my cell phone, I keep all of my consultation appointments, trainings, meetings, etc. on the calendar.  I use my phone to give me directions to the various locations of my visits, this is an imperative tool for my ability to perform my job.  My phone also allows me to access my e-mail while traveling on the road.  My car is the other tool I count on for support in doing my job, it allows me to travel throughout the 3 county area I work in. 

            My support from God and my family will always be there so I have no fear of losing those supports, which is good because without my family life wouldn’t be worth living.  When I think about the work supports my phone offers me, I can tell you that a little over a year ago, I still didn’t have a smart phone and could not access the internet.  It was so hard to be able to stay in communication with my regional office and other emails.  It caused me to miss time sensitive emails.  I had to carry my laptop, my gps, and my paper calendar to replace everything the phone that I have now can do.

            If I had physical disability, such as being wheel chair bound, there would be many impediments that would be a constant challenge.  Any type of stairs or elevated surface would unmanageable unless there was a ramp or an elevator.  Toilets would need to be higher and have grab bars as well as enough room to maneuver my wheel chair around. If I had the use of my hands and arms but not my legs, then hand-controls installed in the car would be a support. Any vehicle I would drive would need to be equipped with a wheel chair lift.  I would not be able to do the job I am doing right now because of all the home programs I have to visit and they do not have ramps or elevators. Doorways in most homes would not be wide enough; the counter height would be too high for me to reach so adjusting the door width and counter heights would be a support. It is really scary to think how hard it would be to go anywhere these days if there were not a law requiring equal access.

           

My Connections to Play-My younger self and Play Today

What I remember most from own childhood and play was the sense of freedom.  I was allowed to use  anything I could collect, transport, or carry to play with.  There were very few limitations placed on my imagination.  These leaves represent my favorite time of the year growing up because although we would have to help rake the leaves when they fell to the ground, we had a good week of fun before we actually had to transport them to the burn pile.  We would pile them up and jump in them, wow, I wish I had the energy to do that now.  It was so empowering.  Then we would use the leaves to make outlines of houses, schools, stores, garages and create an entire city of leaf buildings.  We'd take our dolls and make beds in them.  We'd park our bikes or trikes in the leaf garage.

 The picture of the cardboard house represents the hours of play we used to get whenever my dad would bring home a big cardboard box.  We made houses, trains, boats, cars, beds, chairs, tunnels, pretty much anything and everything we could climb on, crawl through, or hide in.  It always felt so safe and cozy tucked away in my cardboard construction.  It was mine. I made it, many times it was a community affair with neighbors helping out.

I had very few toys that were commercially store bought.  We didn't have a lot of money, but I do remember having barbie dolls and spending many hours with my friends and their dolls, dressing them creating stories about what adventure they were going on that day.  We made doll furniture out of cardboard boxes or empty containers, we used cloth from the ragbag to make clothes for the dolls.  

All of these memories make me reflect on the difference between then and now.  Today kids have so many toys and yet they seem to not be able to use them in various ways, or imagine stories and play scenarios that are as deep as I remember.  My toddler granddaughter gravitates towards the toys that have the buttons to push that make sounds or light up something.  They don't seem to keep her attention like the toys I remember.  But this Christmas, when we were all in the midst of having her open up presents, she was way more interested in playing with the paper and the boxes than she was in playing with her new toys.  I think in some ways we have failed our children by creating so many close-ended toys.  Which is why I became a certified play coach.  I go around to different places in the state and conduct play workshops using recycled collections of objects to get adults back into the swing of play so they can better understand some of the "challenging behaviors" we see when children are only given short amounts of time and are expected to give up part of their materials to share with other students.  Many providers and teachers leave with a new perspective on a child's right to play and create and that it takes time and lots of materials to do it.  It can't be rushed.  We need to respect a child's right to investigate, create, build, and explore in their own time and on their own terms.