International Contacts Part 2

I chose to listen to a podcast done by Delfenna Mitchell.  Delfena Mitchell is a director at Liberty Children's Home in Beliz.  Beliz is placed number one in child abuse in North Caribean.  Children who are in the home are either physically or sexually abused or abanded or neglected.  She spoke about a child who came to the home after being physically abused by family members and also watched his sister be abused.  This child did not speak a word for over a year.  Delfena Mitchell feels that it is important to allow children to take time to heal when children come to the home.  They allow children to be home schooled and placed in informal schooling with providing time to engage in various activities such as gardening and horseback riding.  One day while horseback riding with this child, he began to talk to her about the abuse he experienced in the past.  After that day, he began to open up more and more.  After listening to this story, it reminded me of the importance of allowing children to heal and open up on their own terms.  When working with children in any situation we need to be aware of the child's needs and be patient and give them the opportunity to become comfortable.

After viewing Harvard's University Global Children's Initiative, I noticed that many of the issues mentioned are issues that many of us face in our own communities.  The faculty has begun to build a porfolio of activities in three different domains.  The three domains include early childhood development, child mental health and children in crisis in conflict situations.  In the area of early childhood development part of the initiative is to provide new information based on research to key people involved in international education.  The second part is to fundraise money and pilot common assessments and programs to unify education around the globe.  Mental health is an area that has not been addressed sufficiently.  In order to help in this area funding is being allocated to provide supports in specific areas depending on the need around the world.  Another need is the need to support children who have experienced a crisis.  Programs are being created to help support chidren who find themselves in these situations such as the children in Haiti and Chili after the earthquake as well as the implications from malnutrition. 

While we see many of these issues in early childhood in our country we need to realize that situations could be much worse.  It is necessary for educational leaders around the world to collaborate in order for all children to get their needs met and become healthy individuals.