Getting to know your international contacts - Part 1

This week my assignment is as follows:
If you chose the podcast alternative, report what you learned from the podcast as well as any results from communicating with the early childhood professional from the podcast. If you have not yet received a response, go to the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/), read about childhood poverty in one country, and share at least three insights or ideas you gained from studying the website.

I have not yet heard back from any of the contacts that I sent out. Sadly to say, I have had to send out more emails in hopes that someone will respond. So in order to complete my assignment this week, I have studied the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre's page.

Three insights or ideas that I have gained in studying this website are as follows:

1. They have developed this website to make a difference in many areas

• Deepening understanding of the main causes of childhood poverty and poverty cycles, and increasing knowledge of effective strategies to tackle them in different contexts

• Examining economic and social factors at different levels - international, national and local - which contribute to poverty in childhood

• Informing effective policy to end childhood poverty,  communicating research findings  to policy makers, practitioners and advocates

• Raising the profile of childhood poverty issues and increasing commitment to tackling them through anti-poverty policy and action.

Until this week I was so unaware of so many resources, websites and organizations putting an effort towards helping people and families in poverty.

2. I read a study case on children missing out on school and play because of poverty. the case study was on  Bakyt, an 11-year-old boy living in southern Kyrgyzstan, in a town called Kokyangak. Due in large part to the decline of the coal mining industry in Kokyangak, the majority of the town’s population is now unemployed. The total population of Kokyangak is 10,296 and the official unemployment figure is estimated at 2,000; however, unofficially the employment figure is thought to be about three times higher. In their family, the children are the main breadwinners. He and his brothers work on the coal mine. In their spare time, they pick up bricks for building demolition sites and to sell them. He is often ill because of the physical work and malnutrition. He does well in school but often skips because he has to work.

This case study really saddened my heart and made me realize how bad some children really have it. I hear children complain all the time because they don't want their food, or because they don't want to take a nap and this made me realize that they really have nothing to complain about.

Talking about what he would like to see change in the future, Bakyt says: “I do not know what the future holds for me and my brothers; sometimes I am horrified thinking about it, but I hope for a better future. Every day before I go to sleep, I pray for my mother’s and grandma’s health. I ask God that my brothers find a better job, and for my sister Anara to attend school. I also pray for myself – I would like to go to school and graduate high school. I do not want to see my mother crying into her pillow,  I do not want us to eat mint and I do not want us to have to think about what we will eat tomorrow.”

3. The third insight I got from this site was I found some success stories, in which I longed to see after reading the case study above.

What combinations of policies have worked well to reduce childhood poverty and break poverty cycles? What social, economic, political and cultural conditions underpinned these successes? What lessons do they have for policy makers today? This research drew well-known and unsung successes to bring this experience together. Focusing mostly on large scale 'tried and tested' experiences in low-income countries, researchers also drew lessons from relevant middle and high income countries' experiences, and from small-scale successes with strong potential for scaling up.

The research focused on:

1. Basic services. Work on this theme analysed policies to promote affordable, good quality, health, nutrition, education and water and sanitation, focusing both on sector specific policies and supportive 'enabling' policies and approaches.

Key findings:

Investment in these sector areas has played a critical role in reducing childhood poverty.

Committed states have achieved this by prioritizing carefully within and between sectors, giving social policy the same emphasis as economic policy and making strong efforts to reach excluded groups.

Mechanisms for accountability to the public have also played an important role.

This was very interesting to read on as well as many other success stories I found on this website. This site made me realize how real poverty is in other country's around the world. It inspired me to become a part of the move on decreasing poverty.