Friday, March 30, 2012

Getting to Know Your International Contacts, Part 2

Harvard University’s Global Children’s Initiative” (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/)
Harvard University has put together an initiative that focuses on three domains: early childhood development, mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations. This initiative is guided by a group of people that will collaborate, design and implement new projects geared toward advancing the initiative for children.
The three strategic objectives are:
  • To reframe public discourse, about the early childhood period by educating high- level decision makers about learning, behavior, and health
  • To support innovative, multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects in selected regions to expand global understanding about how healthy development happens, and how it can be derailed, and how to get back on track
  • To build leadership capacity in child development research and policy among individuals and institutions in low and middle income countries that will increase and influence perspectives for young children
With this in mind, I was particularly interested in their focus on the situation of children in Haiti and Chile, who were affected by the devastation of the earthquake. I’m also interested in the strategies that will be implemented for addressing acute malnutrition. I would also like to add the effects of poverty on children who are already oppressed. The article discussed concerns about mental health in children and the implications for broader health and development of children.
It wasn’t until I began to study child development that I understood that children face stress in their everyday lives, and how important it is to address these issues in order to facility a healthy community of young children who are able to deal with stressors without setbacks in their daily routines in life. Stress is a part of life, and we must teach our children how to deal effectively with stressful situations. We know that the situation in Haiti was devastating and that the families and children are still feeling the effects.