Beyond School Books Podcast

I am still having trouble making contact with early childhood professionals outside of the United States.  As a result, I started following the UNICEF Beyond School Books Podcast.  The podcast’s main purpose is to focus on organizations responses to continuing education in cases of emergencies (war, natural disasters, etc.)  The past couple of series focused on Haiti and Afganistan.  In Afghanistan, the new UN Secretary disclosed his commitment to children in his new role and in Haiti the organization “Biblioteques Sans Frontiere” (BSF) discussed how their efforts to provide books and libraries in the country is actually cause an increased in school enrolment.  The podcast is very informational as it provides positive information that inspires action from early childhood professionals such as me.

            The podcast was particularly interesting to me because of the story on Haiti.  Being born there one can imagine why the story would be one of interest.  Haiti is a perfect example of how poverty affects the development of children.  Unlike the United States, there are not many government programs and resources to help counteract those effects.  So many Haitians rely on organizations such as UNICEF and NGOs to provide these resources.  Organizations who realize the malnutrition, disease, lack of education disrupting the development of Haitian children and are making their responsibility to combat it.  I am so entirely grateful for the aforementioned organizations and others who are creating positive changes in the community.  I am especially grateful to UNICEF because for as long as I can remember, its presence in Haiti was always known and felt.  Part of the reason my dream job would be to hold a position with the organization is because of the way they impact Haitian families positively and directly.

References

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_67882.html