Getting to know Your International Contacts

For this week, I explored the podcast of Dr. Deevia Bhana, who is a professor of Education at the University of KwaZulu – Natal in South Africa. Her research focuses on children and sexuality. In her presentation, Dr. Bhana dispels the myth that children don’t have the capacity to understand gender issues. She believes that there is a lack of research and attention to children and sexuality issues because of our quest to protect children. Yet, she believes that is necessary to address gender issues at early childhood settings and listen to the voices of children and address their fears. In her presentation, she shares the experience of a 7 year old girl who endured the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic and sexual and gender violence causing her to fear boys at school and men as she walked home from school. Dr. Bhana’s work focuses on children between the ages of 6 and 9 years of age, yet her recommendation are for children in early childhood settings where she believes the issue she start to be addressed.

In addition, I also explored the “Global Children’s Initiative” where I found a wealth of information that reflect the greater commitment of the center to the well-being of all children. Stemming from the Center on the Developing Child’s commitment to global child health and development, the center launched the “Global Children’s Initiative” which focuses on three strategic objectives:

·         Educate top decision makers about the science of learning, behavior, and health.

·         Support research and demonstration projects in certain countries to expand global understanding of healthy development.

·         And build leadership capacity in child development research and policy in low- and middle-income countries.

Their activities in the domain of early childhood development are focused on adapting the successful work conducted in the US for a broader global audience. This is achieved through educating the leadership of key international agencies, publishing papers to establish a scientific framework for global work, and conducting communications research to translate the science of child development for global policymakers. Furthermore, they have launched three projects in order to apply new knowledge that addresses the health and developmental needs of young children in a variety of settings.

·         Assessing quality in early childhood environments and programs in diverse global contexts;

·         Piloting assessments to measure child development outcomes linked to malaria control strategies in Zambia; and

·         Expanding effective interventions to improve preschool quality in Chile.

In the mental health domain, the focus is on bridging the gap between knowledge and service delivery. Mental health has significant effects on the health and development of children and societies. Therefore, a group of Harvard faculty proposed three initial projects to address the problem globally.

·         Assessing the state of child mental health services in China;

·         Developing and evaluating family-based strategies to prevent mental health problems in children affected by HIV/AIDS in Rwanda; and

·         Addressing child maltreatment and mental health outcomes in three Caribbean nations (Barbados, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname).  

And finally, in the domain of children in crisis and conflict situations, the goal is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates a science-based, developmental perspective into the assessment and management of child well-being in a range of natural and man-made crises, focusing on both immediate circumstances and long-term adaptation. The focus in this domain is on:

·         Exploring comparable approaches to surveying child status in post-earthquake Haiti and Chile

·         Bringing the science of child development into strategies for addressing acute malnutrition

The issue of equity and excellence is visible in the title of the “Global Children’s Initiative”. As an Early Childhood professional, it is critical to remain focused on the bigger picture as we address the various issues and trends in the field. The bigger picture is a global well-being of children. Through this initiative, research and findings are being shared globally and strategically with countries that might benefit the most of such findings. Furthermore, the fact that the initiative is targeting high-level policy makers indicated their awareness of the concept of equity and that certain people have greater powers when it come to helping children.

References:

Global children's initiative. (2012). Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/