This week I got a chance to communicate with both of my international contacts, Pam an Atica. Pam is actually enrolled in Walden, and is in our class, but in a different group for discussion and blog assignments. Pam is from the Philippines and has been in the field of education for 24 years now. Pam currently resides in Korea, but is moving to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pam shared with me her background, and how she came into the field of early education. Pam has a degree in Political Science, and worked as a preschool teacher, it is there when she realized that early childhood education was the career she wanted for her life. Pam shared with me the educational issues of her home country, such as rote learning and the emphasis on knowledge building instead of skills and attitudes so that the children could be life-long learners. Pam and I didn't get a chance to touch on the issue of child poverty, but that topic was asked in our last e-mail, but there hasn't been a response yet. I am sure that our next series of e-mail will talk about that topic.
My second international contact name is Atica. Atica and I are still working on establishing a communication routine. I sent an e-mail asking about poverty trends in the Dominican Republic, since that is where she lives, but she hasn't replied yet. I am hoping that maybe we can set-up a schedule where on certain days we exchange e-mails.
Since I was unable to talk to Atica about poverty tends in Dominican Republic, I decided to conduct some research on my own about poverty trends in the Dominican Republic. What I found out is that many children under the age of 18 are in poverty, especially in the rural areas (Benedetti, 2013). Many areas in rural Dominican Republic have no access to clean water, toilets, food or housing, leaving children in horrible conditions (Rural Poverty Portal, n.d.). I am looking forward to talking with Atica to find out more information, and some organizations that are trying to end poverty. As soon as she shares these details with me, I will share them with you all!
The insight that I have gained about poverty in the Dominican Republic is that is a difference in their poverty and our (American) poverty. For example, a child in poverty in our country, in most situations our children in poverty can have access to clean water and food, whereas in the Dominican Republic, they do not.
Have a great week!
Cierra
References:
Benedetti, A. M. (2013, October 08). Half Of The Children In Dominican Republic Live In Poverty According To UNICEF. Retrieved July 18, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/08/children-dominican-republ_n_3727957.html
Rural Poverty Portal. (n.d.). Rural Poverty in the Dominican Republic. Retrieved July 18, 2015, from http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/dominican_republic
Cierra,
ReplyDeleteHow neat that you have established a connection with someone in our class from another part of the world. How did you get in touch with her? It will be interesting to learn about two different nations in regards to child poverty. Way to go on looking more into the poverty in the Dominican on your own. When I read about how children there do not have access even to clean water, it made me frown. I think you are right, American children in poverty probably have access to clean water most of the time. There was a family in my former district who was living in poverty. There were four children and the children in their classes, as well as teachers, were beginning to notice their smell and lack of hygiene. For some of the teachers it was very frustrating that these children were not being bathed, as we knew they did not live in town so had a well and did not have to pay for water. And while that was frustrating, another teacher pointed out that while they had water, they may not have the money for soap, deodorant, and so on. I saw the conditions they were living in personally because I had to do a home visit, and they were the poorest I have seen a child live in. I can only imagine what children in the Dominican are living in as they do not have access to clean water most of the time. So sad.
Cierra,
ReplyDeleteHow great that you have 2 contacts to work with. I am sure you will learn so much from them. I agree that our version of "poverty" and then another country's version are so very different. My heart breaks for these children and their families.
Shannon
It is so great you got two contacts! Congratulations. I look forward to hearing from both of them more. I can not imagine not having drinkable water. I think we take for granted the bottle water we get in stores. We use our tap a lot we have well and use it often. One time we were up north and we had an artisan well and my little cousin said is it filtered? My dad answered yup right through the dirt. We just sometimes forget how good we really do have it. Thank you for sharing this post! I look forward to more.
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