Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Center on the Developing Child - Harvard University - Global Children’s Initiative

“We view healthy child development as the foundation of economic prosperity, strong communities and a just society, and our mission is to advance that vision by using science to enhance child well-being through innovations in policy and practice” (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010).

The Global Children’s Initiative is focused on three objectives:

1.     Re-framing public discourse about the early childhood period by educating policymakers about the understanding of the science of learning, behavior and health.  

2.     Supporting innovative, multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects in various countries and regions that expand the global understanding of how healthy development begins can be disrupted and then redirected towards the right direction.

 3.    Building leadership capabilities in child development research and policy in low and middle income countries in order to increase the number and influence of different viewpoints that contribute to the global movement for young children (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010)

Through these objectives the Global Children’s Initiative will build activities on the following domains, early childhood development, mental health and children in crisis and conflict situations. My interest is in the children in crisis and conflict situations. 

The two issues that will be focused on in this domain:

1.   Exploring comparable approaches to surveying child status in post-earthquake Haiti and Chile.

2    Bringing the science of child development into strategies for addressing acute malnutrition (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010).

As I read further on the assigned document, I found that the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health both have extensive experience in emergency situations across the world (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010).  I put these into a search engine because I was curious to find if there was more information about children in Haiti or Chile as stated above. I found one article about Haiti. 

The following articles had a lot of important information about children and women throughout the world.

Health Rights of Women and Children - http://fxb.harvard.edu/health-rights-of-women-and-children/

Research Program on Children and Global Adversity - http://fxb.harvard.edu/research-program-on-children-and-global-adversity/

Former Programs - http://fxb.harvard.edu/former-programs/

Program on Human Trafficking and Forced Labor - http://fxb.harvard.edu/program-on-human-trafficking-and-forced-labor/

Some of the important insights I have taken away from this site is when Harvard School begins to research something they set goals and objectives and then they develop domains with activities to assure steps are taken to improve the life’s of  individuals globally.

This was very eye opening to me. I do not think I have lived a sheltered life but when you live in an area where you do not have to worry about having enough to eat, where you are going to sleep or human trafficking your priorities and worries in everyday life are very different.  Non-profit organizations that help globally have to be commended because of the important work they do and how much assistance they truly give.

Reference

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/