Getting to Know International Contacts-Part 1

            I find myself still waiting to here from anyone both emails I have sent and my colleague’s international friend. I have chosen the alternative option for this blog. The world forum is pretty awesome. I have never done a pod cast before so that was a learning experience in itself and I was intrigued by the different people that contributed from a variety of different areas in the Early Childhood field. I listened to two podcast one with Susan Lyon the Director of the Innovative Project in California and Maysoun Chehab she works for Arab Resource Collective she is the Director of Early Childhood program and practices in the Middle East. I sent their site an email requesting correspondence also.

            I reviewed the article posted on the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center page http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ . The country I chose to examine was Kyrgyzstan. I chose them as I had never heard of this place before. This country up to 1991 was apart of the Soviet Union and with new found Independence they are striving for a rapid transformation and thriving market economy. According to the article “Kyrgyzstan is now starting to recover from the economic shocks associated with transition and independence, and in 2001 GDP grew by 5.3 per cent. The majority of the population - approximately 60 per cent - makes their living from agriculture.”(CHIP) 41 percent of the urban population and 51 percent of the rural population live below the government poverty line with 18 percent unable to afford their basic food needs. Although at Independence Kyrgyzstan people had much higher levels of education and health since Independence they have began notice a decline in kindergarten, school enrollment and graduations. The poverty is forcing these children to go to work in a variety of jobs including agricultural but sadly trafficking and child prostitution. Tuberculosis is on the rise and affecting their teenagers. The government is in the processes of developing a Comprehensive Developmental Framework which has a 15 year goal to reduce poverty, promote growth create a good government, a fairer society and a commitment to childhood poverty. I found the goals to be pretty realistic and would like to see how well this plan works in five years from now. I found this to be interesting as I can’t imagine what a society must go through when they are breaking a way from a country that feeds them and claiming independence so that they can go on their own.       

Resources:

CHIP Child Poverty Research and Policy Center http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/