Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

The podcast that I was able to listen to was the director of the Liberty Foundation, Marcelle Delahaye.  Marcelle indicated that Belize has the number one incidence rate of child abuse, there are currently forty-two children who reside at Liberty.  All of the children who live their have been abused physically and or sexually, abandoned or neglected. When children first enter the residence they are not immediately placed in the classroom with the other children, this is because they want them to have time to heal before they mingle with the children who have had time to face their fears and start the healing process from their troubled past. I have learned that child abuse happens all over the world and that it can leave behind a trail of broken people.  There should be a mountain of steps that early childhood professionals should take when dealing with children who may have a past of abuse.  That kid that they see as being rude or undiscipline may go home to a house full of abuse which causes them to act they way they do.  Children who live in poverty or more likely to face abuse than their more privilaged counterparts.

Sharing Web Resources

Provide the name and link for the international website you selected, and a brief description of the organization’s focus
The name of the link for the international website I selected was the Liberty Foundation, http://www.libertyfoundation.org.uk/.  This organization is located in Belize and provides children who have been abondoned and or abused a safe place to grow and develop.  They have been caring for abused and abandoned children since 2005, providing high quality child-centered education for pre-school children.

Identify one current issue/trend from the newsletter and/or from the website that caught your attention.  Share if there was anything else you learned from studying these resources related to the topic of this week.

One current trend that caught my attention was their outreach program Parent's As Teacher's (PAT), which is an international family support program that helps parent's be their child(ren) best first teacher.  They provide parents with adequate information, guidance and assistance with every day trials and tribulations of parenting as well as identifying children who are at risk and for those who have disabilities and special needs.  Liberty serves hundreds of families within Belize and they are expected to become nationwide within the next couple of years. This program is very much needed in every community in the United States, all parents are their child's first teacher and can learn something positive from this outreach program.  Being a good parent does not mean that you have always done everything correctly, however it makes this learning experience much easier when you have this type of support from outside resources.