Getting to Know International Contacts

I was able to contact two early childhood professionals outside of the U.S. Rachel lives in Iceland and Karen lives in Canada. They were both very gracious and informational. Our communication has been done through email. I emailed them both and simply asked about poverty in their country and in their professional lives as well as how they personally felt about poverty as a world-wide issue.

Rachel spoke of poverty as a world-wide issue very passionately. She stated that she struggles with why some areas of the world are struggling to feed their people and other areas are dealing with obesity. She also spoke passionately about assistance needing to be for helping and teaching people to come out of poverty rather than being used as an only means of income. She has not dealt with poverty in her professional life, stating that while some of the families in her nursery receive reduced tuition, because of parent's not working, she would not label them as living in poverty.

Karen stated that poverty in Canada is not much different than in the U.S. except for the fact that they have very remote areas where food, water and supplies must be flown in making things more expensive. We discussed whether the cost of living had anything to do with the poverty rate in Canada and she said she did not believe it did. She talked about Canada going towards Universal Early Learning and that children begin full day Kindergarten if they turn four before December 31, which she believes lends to relieving some financial strain on families. One statement she made struck me, she said that Canada has pledged to alleviate child poverty but still have such a long way to go.

I feel like the contacts I have made with Rachel and Karen will be beneficial in my professional life and my personal life. They have a lot of insight and are eager and willing to share with me and for that I am very grateful.
I have found a new passion for helping and supporting families in poverty over the course of this week's readings and research. As I have begun to look at my own community, the numbers of children and families in poverty and/or homeless is shocking. It has saddened me, but also moved me into action. I believe that I will be seeking to become more involved in helping, partnering with organizations and getting my family involved in the very near future.