Establishing contacts and expanding resources

            Over the past several months, I have come to realize the value of professional contacts and resources and how they can support me in my development as an early childhood professional. Having worked in the EC field in both Sri Lanka and the United States, I also know that there are vast differences in the state of the field of EC across countries, the issues at hand and how those issues are addressed. For these reasons contacting professionals from other parts of the world to learn more about their work and the state of early childhood where they live sounded very exciting. 

                I mentioned my assignment to one of my co-workers who is from the Philippines. She was kind enough to share two of her contacts with me. I was able to get in touch with them this past week and both of them agreed to serve as a resource for me throughout this course. My first contact Fran, is currently a preschool teacher in the Philippines. My second contact Prof. Carol, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Woosong University in South Korea. She also mentioned that she had recently worked with a student who was also working on their masters at Walden. What a small world! I am very excited to correspond with them over the next several weeks and thereafter to find out more about their work and their views on issues affecting the field of early childhood.

                While I was browsing through the blog resources this week to select a website to study, I came across the website for Save the Children an organization I was somewhat familiar with. Many years ago while in high school, I had been in touch with the Save the Children, Sri Lanka office to learn more about their work on Child Abuse Prevention in Sri Lanka and their work on supporting children of abuse. The work of organizations such as Save the Children is crucial especially in developing countries such as Sri Lanka in addressing the many issues involving children and families that they continue to struggle with. Currently, Save the Children works in 120 countries throughout the world in the areas of education, health, child protection, disaster relief and more. On a personal level, having witnessed the impact of poverty, war and violence on children and families while growing up in Sri Lanka, I greatly value the work of organizations such as Save the Children. In the coming weeks, I hope to learn more about their work and gain a deeper understanding of issues that affect children and families throughout the world and how they are being addressed.