Week 3: Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 1

Since I do not have a conversation partner, I previewed the World Forum Radio podcasts and looked up information on the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. The podcasts I listened to were on Delfena Mitchell, Director of Liberty Children’s Home on the outskirts of Belize City in 2009 and TJ Skalski, Principle of the Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School in Canada. I also listened to a podcast on Bam radio network called Edchat. The podcast by Whitby, Blair and Davis talked about the challenges of teaching students in poverty.

In places such as Belize City, in Central America and Canada, poverty is a well-known problem as well as the USA. Liberty Children’s Home is a “non-profit program licensed to house up to 40 children and all the children at this program have either been abandoned, abused or orphaned as well as disabilities, special needs or are HIV positive (World Forum, 2009).” The Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School was the first indigenous charter school in Canada. This program “provides education grounded in the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, embeds cultural knowledge into programs and activities, offers programs for children from pre-kindergarten through Grade 9 (Kalinowski, n.d., par 5).”

 As I was listening to the podcasts and researched information on the programs, I came across the Hope Foundation who partners with The Mother’s Earth’s Children’s Charter School. The Hope Foundation is “internationally recognized for re-culturing school communities and sustaining student success by collaborating with schools and districts on a long-term basis to build leadership capacity and ensure success (Hope Foundation, n.d.).”

The last podcast on the challenges of teaching students in poverty talked about the difficulties in the USA. One of the major problems as pointed out by the commentators is that people tend to view poverty stricken people in the USA as choosing to be in poverty. One example was if the poverty stricken people would get a job, they would have money. This is untrue. The problem in the USA is that people cannot earn a living wage, as stated by the commentators. (Whitby, Blair, and Davis, 2013).

Another organization was UNICEF. UNICEF Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting program partners with other organizations to combat poverty, such as The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre IS “linked to Save the Children, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and partners in China, India, Kyrgystan and Mongolia (UNICEF, n.d., par 3).” As I researched the many topics of the site, I chose to read about poverty in South Sudan. The people of South Sudan are constantly working against poverty. One factor is nature; the “floods followed by drought mean that is hard to grow sufficient crops (Save the Children, 2014, par 1).” Sometimes the people of South Sudan walk “two days across the border to Ethiopia to try and buy whatever food one can afford (Save the Children, 2014, par 1).” Save the Children has a farmers group which demonstrates how to use “seeds and tools to help them increase the amount of food they are able to grow so that they can feed their families (Save the Children, 2014, par 4).”

References

Hope Foundation. (n.d.). Mission and Vision. Retrieved from http://www.hopefoundation.org/about/mission-vision/

Kalinowski, M. (n.d.). A program showcase: Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School. Retrieved from http://www.childcareexchange.com/resources/view_article.php?article_id=5019192&keyword_id=&page=1

Whitby, Blair, and Davis. (2013). The Challenges of Teaching Students in Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.bamradionetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1222:jackstreet54&catid=86:edchat-radio-&Itemid=249

Save the Children. (2014). South Sudan. Retrieved from http://southsudan.savethechildren.net/news/i-grow-vegetables-so-my-children-can-go-school

UNICEF. (n.d.). UNICEF Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_45381.html

World Forum Radio. (2009). Episode 3: Delfena Mitchell. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_03_DelfenaMitchell.mp3

World Forum Radio. (2010). Episode 7: TJ Skalski. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_07_TJSkalski.mp3