Getting to Know my International Contacts - Part 1

 My FIRST CONVERSATION PROFESSIONAL PARTNER:

 JEANNIE FARR, shares about poverty in Hawaii.

Jeannie holds an associate degree in Early Childhood Education and a BA in Family Resources

 She is currently enrolled for her Masters degree. Most importantly, Jeannie has been contributing to the field of early childhood since the past 16 years.

She presently work as a head start teacher.

Hawaii is a very beautiful place that I look forward to visiting hopefully in the future.

Hawaii is a state with wonderful sites  to visit and explore, so it is a tourist attraction for holiday lovers .

In the midst of these, however, it is so sad to note that children are suffering from the impacts of poverty which has hit their parents to a helpless state.

Child Poverty in Hawaii

One child in five in Hawai`i lives in a family with income below the federal poverty threshold. When the high cost of living is considered, a truer picture is obtained of nearly one child in four being in poverty.

The major reason for child poverty in Hawaii is high cost of living. This should be because of the fact that the state is a tourist attraction. Another reason is that, goods arrive at Hawaii over the cost of shipping, owing to the fact that it is an island and consumers have to pay for this as the cost is added to the costs of the goods. Thirdly, the cost of accommodation is so so high.

The majority of the population find it hard to meet up with this standard of living and the outcome is joblessness, homelessness, poverty and child poverty. Most of all is that the children are robbed of viewing a future to look forward to.

The homelessness in Hawaii is alarming:

Homeless in Hawaii

The following statistics are quite discouraging:

         Statewide, 12-15,000 people are homeless at some point of the year.

         At least 6,000 are homeless at any given day.

         Children make up 23.5-39% of the homeless.

         17-42% of Hawaii's homeless are employed full-time.

         37% of the homeless are of Native Hawaiian ethnicity.

People live on the beach. Good enough that the government offer tuition free school to the children at no cost inclusive of free meals, however, some parents get to bath their children in the school's facility and get them ready for school early enough there. 

Families do multiple jobs ( global recession is causing job cut)
Families trade time together to meet basic needs. 
Families are rendered homeless.    

While low-income people have been suffering, the more privileged sectors of the community have continued to prosper. During the recession, Hawai`i continued to rank near the top in the number of millionaires per capita; in fact, the number actually increased by 18 %

Reference:  http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu

Reference:  http://hawaiihomeproject.org

 Jeannie's feedback:

Concerns I have for poverty in terms of the world is that poverty in itself is a great problem that leads to even greater problems; social exclusion and inequality.

Of greater concern is addressing, reducing and even eliminating poverty,  its causes and consequence on the health and development of young children and their families.   We play an instrumental role in advocating for children and families.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

My SECOND CONVERSATION PROFESSIONAL PARTNER:

 STELLA EDEMEKONG, shares about poverty in Nigeria.

Stella holds a B.ED degree  and a BA in English Language

 Most importantly, Stella   has been contributing to the field of early childhood since the past 17 years.

She presently works as the Educational Coach with the Nursery, Primary and Highschool depts of the Obiye Academy here in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. e mail: starekong@gmail.com


Stella said:

How poverty affects young children and their families.

Young children from poor families lack basic amenities such as portable water for drinking, basic healthcare facilities, good means of transportation, shelter in hygienically conducive environment, proper items of clothing and food to mention but a few. Such children feel deprived and are often depraved.

 Some of them are exposed to many forms of childhood abuse like if left alone without adult care at home while the parent go in search of daily bread, may be sexually harassed by depraved adults in the vicinity. Some are exposed to child labour and hawking. Some still are drafted too early into child marriage; the girls are often victims here.  A well to do elderly man approaches the poverty-stricken family and for some huge sum of money, a under aged little girl is sold out (without her consent) into marital gloom.

Poverty could result into illness that can cause the early demise of a parent or both parents. This in turn could mean no sure means of sustenance for the young child and there is no governmental provision to cater for such children. Few of them may have access to NGOs that could provide basic care for them.

Most poor families can barely afford the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter for themselves.

What are the impacts of poverty to the field of early childhood in our local community?

Our local community is a predominantly fishing settlement, Amadi Ama, in Rivers State, Nigeria. The middle class settlers are non-indigenes while majority of the indigenes are low-income earners and fishermen Below are a list of the very obvious impacts of poverty to early childhood programs within this environment: 

Absenteeism

o    Regular attendance at school is important for educational success. Absenteeism has a negative effect on academic achievement in reading, math, and general knowledge. Research has found that among poor children, chronic absenteeism in kindergarten predicts low achievement levels. Poor families' lack of resources such as transportation, food, and clothing may prevent children from attending school regularly. Illness is another significant factor to consider with regard to absenteeism since about 20 percent of low-income infants and toddlers do not have necessary health attention from Government Health Centre which are often over populated while the private clinics are certainly way out of reach of the poor.

Emotional Impact

o    Poverty's effects on the emotional development of children has a negative impact on education. According to the Connecticut General Assembly, research shows that children from poor families experience emotional problems more often than non-poor children. As explained on teach-nology.com, emotions are connected to memory, which affect the capacity of children to grasp ideas, think and learn. This lack of emotional development interferes with language development, further preventing the development of higher-order thinking skills that assist with independent problem solving. Children living in poverty may be fearful, which can be converted to aggression, irritability, and apathy, all of which have a negative effect on learning.

Low Academic Performance

o    Poor cognitive development affects academic performance. Children who live below the poverty line are 1.3 times more likely to have developmental delays or learning disabilities compared to non-poor children. Research indicates that nutrition impacts children's cognitive ability and that poor nutrition retards physical growth, brain development, and cognitive function. Chronic stress from lack of nutrition and a poor environment inhibit the growth of dendrites and limit interconnections among neurons. Poor children who attend school hungry perform more poorly on standardized tests compared to non-hungry children.

o    Poverty also increases the risk for lead poisoning, which lowers IQ and causes speech and hearing problems.

School Unreadiness

o    A significant effect of child poverty on education is school unreadiness. School unreadiness is seen in low-income children, who enter kindergarten lagging behind their peers and by fourth grade do not meet reading proficiency standards. Children in poverty may not be ready for school because they miss out on things that help with the development of academic skills, such as computers, visits to zoos and museums, preschool programs, and having access to literature and educational reading materials.

High Cost of Early Childhood School Programs

o   Most poor families cannot afford the cost of sending their children to early childhood schools as some have more children than they can financially cater for and these school programs are run by private persons who do not get subvention or any form of aid from the Government. These need to raise funds to raise enough funds to pay their employees and meet up with the running cost of their institutions.

The list of the impact of poverty to the field of early childhood in our local community is inexhaustible.

  
My view on the above encounters:
I was definitely unaware of the impacts of poverty on children. It is so enormous what children are faced with in the face of poverty. 
I always never knew that a state like Hawaii had families displaced and now it is seen as part of their lives.  

I am aware of the issues associated with poverty in Amadi ama, but the detailed outlining of Stella gives me a bigger and more exhaustive detail of how poverty is ruining the present lives and the future lives of children.

The new things I have learned is that children are being deprived of childhood experiences and we as professionals have to live up to our commitment. We have to take up the tool we have and use it.  I learned that there is no option out of ADVOCACY for everyone who works with children. Also I have seen that poverty can be found in any part of the world, as long as there are children, and that when the Government of intervenes, it goes a long way to ameliorate the effect. 

I also have learned that the impact of poverty always hit children hard and we need to understand that so that we can know how to meet all learners needs.