Getting to Know International Organizations: Part 1

The organization I have selected is Children International and the works they have done and continue to do for families in the Philippines.
Children International Mission is :We connect people around the world in the fight to end poverty. Working together, we invest in the lives of children and youth, build the healthy environments they need to thrive, and empower them to create lasting change in their own lives and communities (Children International, 2020).
Children International helps families all over the country and their work with children and families in the Philippines' interest me most. In my research I found that the Philippines is one of the most populated countries in the world and unemployment and underemployment leave many families in the Philippines struggling to meet basic needs (Children International, 2020). Children International has a Career Readiness program that teaches teens job and life skills to help them succeed and then follows through by placing those teens in those jobs through prior agreements made with their local employers (Children International, 2020). CI also talks to the teens in the community about early sex practices and screens all children early to combats malnutrition.
I believe that after viewing Children International families in other countries have many of the same issues as we have here in the United States and they are actively taking in the resources offered to them in order to give their families a better future.

Resources

https://www.children.org/see-the-impact/where-we-work/asia-philippines

https://www.children.org/global-poverty/breaking-the-cycle-of-poverty

https://www.children.org/learn-more/mission-vision-values#betterfutures

Sharing Web Resources

The National Institute for Early Education Research’s (NIEER) State(s) of Head Start report is the first report to describe and analyze in detail Head Start enrollment, funding, quality, and duration, state-by-state" (2019). 
 

When I selected NIEER and its newsletter as the organization to build on my understanding of the operations of how they keep their members and others informed I had only touch the surfaces of how informed they are of the ECE field. In receiving the weekly newsletter it was literally an eye opening experience within every article.Their are so many variables that play a life long role in a child life, NOT being able to receive a quality ECE should NOT be one of them, "without Congress allocating adequate funding, Head Start programs will continue to be forced to choose between providing high-quality or school-day programs; hiring quality teachers (and paying them adequately); or enrolling more children" (NIEER,2015)
I wanted to share the article related to military families and how every state does not consider the parents military status as an eligibility criterion. As I have stated before either in my blog or in a class discussion recently or current I always feel a pull to the funding side of ECE. In reviewing this article, I discovered that there are 13 states that consider active duty status for a high quality state funded Pre-K. "Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia include parent military active duty status as an eligibility criterion for state-funded pre-k"(NIEER, 2019). If there is anything that I believe should be free it is an EDUCATION. I found this article as well as several others tugged at my heart because of the lack of high quality program being denied for ANY child. "Pre-K programs in California, Georgia, Washington, Hawaii, and Colorado, five of the ten states with the largest number of military active duty personnel, do not consider a parent’s military active duty status" (NIEER, 2019).
"State-funded pre-K programs in the USA all aim to prepare children for success in kindergarten and beyond by supporting development of the whole child.  Nevertheless, policies that shape the design and implementation of these programs vary dramatically from one state to another. With so much variation, it is questionable whether any common outcomes should be expected"(Barnett, 2018).

I believe that it is long over due that Congress takes a step back to evaluate the long term damage the lack of funding causes to the country overall in ECE and resolve the issue in funding for children in addition to adequate wages for educators across the board. 




References

Few States Provide Pre-K for Children with Parent on Military Active Duty. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nieer.org/press-release/few-states-provide-pre-k-for-children-with-parent-on-military-active-duty

S., Barnett, PhD. (2018). New Research on Pre-K: Surprised Findings. Retrieved fromhttp://nieer.org/2018/03/29/new-research-pre-k-surprising-findings

State(s) of Head Start. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nieer.org/headstart

Expanding Horizons and Expanding Resources

After reviewing "The Global Fund for Children" I believe that the resources made available to benefit children and families all over the world is an organization that all educators should be made aware of if they are not already. I reviewed "Saved the Children" as well however, I was engrossed in all that there is to learn about GFC. GFC is one of two recent organizations that I have joined. The second organization I joined was Nieer.
In making my decision on Nieer organization ( National Institute for Early Education Research)  to do further research on, I was deeply intrigued with the financial side of what factors effect funding for our children and educators. I worked in finance for over 15 years and a part of me feels like money will always whisper to me. It saddens me that with all the wealthy institutes all over the world in addition to the intelligent individuals we have in the world we have yet to devise a more effective system that financially meets the educational needs for our children and their future as well as adequate financial stability for educators.