Podcast: International views on Poverty

I have not received a response from my global contacts so I went to the World Forum Foundation website (http://www.worldforumfoundation.org) and listened to a podcast in which Michael Kalinowski, of World Forum Foundation, interviewed Maysoun Cheyhab, the regional Early Childhood Care and Education Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC) in Lebanon.  Maysoun Cheyhab works with doctors, policy makers, and the early childhood community to raise awareness about early childhood development and child rights as well as providing education and trainings for early childhood educators to teach best practices. During her interview, she discusses what she feels was one of the most rewarding projects she was a part of since joining the ARC.  This project was a psychosocial project that started just after the war on Lebanon.  The war lasted 33 days and affected everyone, men and women, boys and girls.  There was a lot of destruction including more than 100 elementary schools in the area.  Support was definitely needed at this time for everyone living in Lebanon.  The ARC stepped in and set up the psychosocial support project where parents and teachers were trained on how to identify emotional and social reactions children will experience due to the war.  The biggest part of this project was that adults, parents, and teachers got the help they needed first in order to provide the support for the children.  The ARC was able to address the family as a whole and provide them with coping techniques and strategies to help them succeed in life after the war. 

I was unable to make contact with Maysoun Cheyhab or Michael Kalinowski from the podcast so I went to the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s website and learned about poverty in China (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org).  Through my study on poverty in China, I learned that much has been done in terms of reducing poverty and as of 2001, only 5 percent of the population lived under the national poverty line.  Unfortunately this statistic is not accurate for all of China, as areas such as Western China are not experiencing this economic growth as quickly.  Compared to China as a whole, Western China is also at a disadvantage in terms of children’s mortality rate and overall academic success.  There is a social security system in place that helps the poor but the money allocated doesn’t meet all of the needs for food and shelter.  CHIP (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre) is working with the Ministry of Civil Affairs to possibly increase the amount of help to ensure that funds are available to assist with school attendance and help rural areas receive assistance.  

Through this assignment, I was able to see that poverty can be seen all over the world and for different reasons.  Some places experience poverty as a way of life for as long as some people can remember.  Other places are struck with a disaster or event that leaves them in a state of poverty.  Either way, people are affected everywhere by poverty and it is through organizations like the ARC and CHIP that help those in poverty make the most of their situation and hopefully turn things around.