Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part I

Unfortunately I have not been able to reach my contacts.   I decided to go the alternative route.  It took me a couple of tries to access world foundation radio, but after playing around I finally got it!

Episode 4:
Maysoun Chehab is the Regional Early Childhood Care and Development Program Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon. She has a Masters degree in Special Education with focus on learning disabilities, and a BA in Child and Family Counseling from the University of Michigan.  Maysoun has coordinated ECCD projects in Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, and Yemen. Recently, she introduced a conflict resolution model program to Lebanese schools and a post-conflict community based psychosocial intervention program in Lebanon. Maysoun has also served as a Global Leader for the World Forum.

In this podcast Maysoun talks about the work she has done in ARC, especially in Lebanon after the war in 2006.  After the 2006 War on Lebanon there were many young children affected.  The war lasted 30 days and it was a devastating time for the country.  Many families were affected during the war.  126 primary schools were totally destroyed which left families, teachers, and children in need of support. 
When the war was over, Maysoun and some members of ARC went to the affected areas and implemented a Psycho Social Post Conflict.  They trained parents and teachers about the range of emotional and social reactions young children would have in post conflict situations.  One thing that they found to be very successful was that before targeting the children they had to target the mother, father, and the teachers.  The reason for this was if adults aren't supported themselves they cannot support young children.

 

 After listening to the podcast I wanted to know more about the children of Lebanon.  I continued my research on the UNICEF website http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/lebanon_66189.html.
 
More than two thirds of Palestinian refugees living in severe poverty in Lebanon, few families can afford to pay for school supplies and books. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), dropout rates among Palestinian refugee children aged 6 to 18 are high – approximately 18 per cent.
UNICEF is supporting the efforts of UNRWA to ensure access to education for all Palestinian refugee children living in Lebanon. Children who have recently arrived from the Syrian Arab Republic are among those targeted through these initiatives.
“We are committed to support UNRWA in ensuring all children access their right to education – Palestinian children in Lebanon, and now children who have fled the violence in Syria,” says UNICEF Lebanon Representative Annamaria Laurini. “Many of the Syrian children and families are sheltering in the most vulnerable and poor communities here in Lebanon, which puts additional strains on the very few resources that exist. They are in urgent need of basic support"(UNICEF, 2012).

 

Sharing Web Resources

This week I explored NBCDI- National Black Child Development Institute (www.nbcdi.org).  Under the Who We Are tab, you will find out the history of this organization as well as the mission statement. 

For 38 years, Evelyn K. Moore, who got her start as a teacher in the groundbreaking Perry Pre-school/High Scope program, which became the model for Head Start, led NBCDI.  She has dedicated her entire professional career to improving outcomes for our society’s most vulnerable children. Her leadership was followed by that of renowned early childhood educator, writer and leader, Carol Brunson Day, who led NBCDI from 2007 to 2011.  NBCDI’s current President and CEO is Dr. Felicia DeHaney.

As I scrolled through the resources, the article that caught my attention was “A Call for Change: A Preliminary Blueprint to Improve Educational Excellence and Opportunity for African American Males in Urban Public Schools”.  I am always concerned about our youth, but especially young black males.  These children have so many strikes against them and I feel as if they are never given a fair chance.  My husband is a part of the Big Brother program here in GA and I am going through the process to become a Big Sister.  The both of us have fallen in love with his little brother and he has improved in many areas in the past three years.  All he needed was someone to take an interest in him and guide him.

There is a section in the paper on Developing and Overseeing Mentoring Programs.  It gives suggestions on ways urban schools can work with these different programs.

Urban schools should:

1.     Determine goals for a mentoring program meant to assist African American males either academically or otherwise, and decide whether the mentoring will be one-on-one, group, community or school-based, or some combination of approaches. Ensure that the design of a mentoring program reflects best practices in matching mentors and students based on relevant criteria.

2.     Clarify that mentors do not have the roles of tutors or disciplinarians. Mentors need to have a trusting relationship with young African American males. School staff should be informed of what this role is and what it is not.

3.     Have the mentorship program target problem and high-risk behaviors (e.g., delinquency or violence, drug use, absenteeism or high suspension rates) exhibited by African American males who may lack responsible male adults in their lives.

4.     Recruit responsible African American adult mentors from the community to pair with district students before and after school and on weekends. Set up clear screening procedures and background checks for mentors and professional development to support their relationships with African American male students.

5.     Carefully match mentors with young African American mentees based on interests, goals, demographic similarities, interview results, and other factors. Enlist the support and assistance of school administrators, counselors, and social workers in identifying students for mentoring and to coordinate efforts.

6.     Mentoring activities with young African American males should include such key activities as exposing them to higher education and career paths, personal relationship building, joint reading and discussion sessions, and sports and recreation.

7.     Provide professional development for mentors throughout their relationship with their young African American male charges, and ensure that mentors are in touch with their organizations at least monthly to discuss progress and challenges.

8.     Require a mentoring relationship with young African American males of at least 12 months and ideally of three years. Care must be taken to ensure that the relationship does not end with the student thinking that he has been abandoned (again) or that it has ended because of something he did or did not do.

9.     Set up special parent training workshops, particularly for single mothers who may be having difficulty with their African American sons, on how to be a positive role model and catalyst in lives of their male children. Other workshops might include relationship building, monitoring, stable home environments, drug prevention, avoiding violence, effective parent- child communications, gang involvement, and the value of staying in school.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I think it just hit me that I have started my 4th class as a graduate student at Walden University.  The semester has just started after a nice two week break.  I have to be honest and say that I needed that break!!  As mush as I am enjoying being back in school, I am still finding it difficult to find time to find time just for me.  My motivation to keep going is completing this degree!!

Part 1: Establishing Professional Contacts

I started off going to The Global Alliance of NAEYC.  There are a list of references for people in this field all over the world.  I picked Macedonia and Haiti and send emails to the people listed.  I am not familiar with either country and am curious to learn more about their education system.

1) Macedonia
Foundations for Educational and Cultural Initiatives of Macedonia (FECIM)
Contact- Suzana Kirandziska

2) Haiti
Step by Step Program/ Tipa Tipa
Contact- Dominique Hudicourt

As of today I have not heard back from either contact,but I will be reaching out again this week.

Part 2: Expanding Resources

I picked 2 resources to look at, the first one I chose was the National Black Child Development Institute and the second was the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.

National Black Child Development Institute 
www.nbcdi.org

Their focus has been on achieving positive outcomes for vulnerable children who suffer from the dual legacies of poverty and racial discrimination.  The organization was launched by the Black Women’s Community Development Foundation, whose leadership, in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, was deeply concerned about the unsatisfactory conditions faced by families determined to raise healthy Black children.

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators

www.naecte.org

NAECTE members are people from all across the United States and from countries around the globe. We are joined together by our common interest in Early Childhood Teacher Education.

I am looking forward to expanding on this assignment over the course of this semester.