Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

To my Fellow Early Childhood Bloggers,

Welcome to my blog site. Let me say: Aloha to my Ohana, which means "Welcome to my Family".

I am an Asian American who migrated in the US in 1997. I came from the Philippines and Filipino/ Tagalog is my first language. I migrated here in the US to start a family. I am now living here in Hawaii with my husband and three children. I am currently working as an Assistant Director at Ford Island Child Development Center in Pearl Harbor.

This is going to be an interesting journey for all of us and I am looking forward to blog with all of you.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Sharing Web Resources

The Early Childhood Council (ECC) is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. It has over a1000 member centers which are both community-owned and commercially owned, it employ more than 7000 staff and care for more than 50,000 children.

There are two issues that I read this week that affects greatly the welfare of the children, their families and early childhood professionals in New Zealand. First is the removal of the 80 to 100% funding band and second, the child poverty in New Zealand.

Peter Reynolds, CEO of the Early Childhood Council (ECC) was concerned about the cutting of funds which will greatly affect the many childhood centers in New Zealand. He said that many centers have invested on educational programs to achieve government goals in order to get funding from the government will now feel that they have wasted their money and time. He said:” to remove the goal and its associated funding penalizes harshly those centres that have achieved it, and the impact on our membership is substantial” (ECC, 2011). A number of centers are now very concerned about the impact of this on their businesses. The ECC believed that there were ‘alternative options’ for government to consider around this issue and would seek to meet with their Minister of Education to settle this concern.

The second issue that I would like to share is the poverty facing New Zealand’s children. Professor Dame Anne Salmond quotes: ‘An ageing society that does not care for its young has a death wish’ (ECC, 2011). She said that the New Zealand policy makers must have a death wish because the children live in homes where income levels are less than 60% of the median household income. The article also was concerned about the lasting effect of this matter to children’s growth and development in the future.

David Grimmond , an economist, found out that New Zealand ranks 28^th out of 30 amongst OECD countries across 20 dimensions of child outcomes. He found that countries like Netherlands use similar amount of funding for children but has better outcomes (ECC, 2011). He recommends that New Zealand increases both its level of spending and find ways to improve how the money is spent. He also says that ‘Access to affordable early childhood education is critical form of public investment leading to positive returns from good child outcomes. For vulnerable children this will be more effective when combined with support and education that enables parents to be involved and also up skill themselves‘(ECC, 2011).

I have learned that every country are having problems economically and has affected greatly the early childhood field. Cutting of funding by the government especially the services provide for the families and early childhood education will have great impact on child’s well being. I will share with you the article I read: Child Poverty and the 1000 campaign which questions and made us think how a household could manage an income that is not even enough to pay for rent or mortgages can provide the basic goods for their children? If families cannot provide adequate food, clothing and housing for our children, what problems do you think they will have as adults? How will their learning be affected?

Reference:
Early Childhood Council New Zealand (EEC)
http://www.ecc.org.nz/MainMenu
(Review also media resources at: http://www.ecc.org.nz/Category?Action=View&Category_id=159)

4 comments:

AnonymousSeptember 17, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Anabel,
You provided great information about isues in NewZealand, I agree with you that economic crisis are affecting many countries.
Cutting of funding by the government especially for services concerning families and their children will have great impact on their the well being. Unfortunately, the higher the funds the better the services and the quality of programs anywhere in this world.
Thanks for sharing
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CareyannSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Dame Anne Salmond hits the mark with her statement regarding the unavoidable demise of a population that does not care for its young. I think that it is a shame that when times are tough, educational systems are the first on the government's chopping block. How will our children and future generations solve the problems created by those who have come before them without the benefit of an exemplary education?
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God's PearlSeptember 18, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Anabel,

Thank you for the new insight. To be honest, I really thought Americans where the only ones that suffer with low poverty and funds for schools. So it is across the Nation, Wow!!! I hope someday all of our children have the resources to at least get a good education!!
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Caitlyn MarktSeptember 18, 2011 at 4:04 PM
Anabel,

Thank you for sharing this information about New Zealand. Being able to each provide information about different organizations around the world through our blogs will enhance our knowledge of the issues and trends occurring around the world.

Thank you for taking the time to research and provide us with great information about the ECC.

Caitlyn
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My Nanay (means ‘Mother’ in Tagalog) Clarita is the heart and soul of our home. She is a positive thinker and a good motivator. She always look at the good things in life and understands also the challenges that comes with it. The only face you see is her smile which brighten the day of so many people. She lives everyday making sure that she has done everything she could and treated each day as if it was her last day. You will never see her complain about things and finds solutions rather than blame people.

My mother raised seven children and she treated each one of us uniquely because she believes that each one of us have our own strength and weaknesses. She treated us differently in a good way because she believes that we are unique in our own special way. She also respects us and allow us to grow independently knowing our unique qualities. She also make sure that we discover our own identity and passion and supports us in any endeavor that we want to pursue.

I remember when I was little that my father an mother were so proud of my siblings because they excelled academically in school. I remember my brothers and sister compete in spelling bee or represent our school in science, math or debate contests. Every recognition day, my parents stayed on the stage to accept awards or medals for my siblings achievements. My mom never said anything to me but I know she tried her best to motivate, inspire and give incentives or recognition to inspire me to do well in school. She continued to support me in any activities that I am interested and always believe in me. She reminded me all the time not to feel or think that I am different but believed in me all time. I may be different from my siblings but I am no less than them. She said that each one of us has our own unique way of doing things and should not be compared with each other. She never compared us with each other. She accepted us as unique individuals with unique qualities and abilities.

Now that I am a parent of three wonderful children I would like to do the same with my children. Respect their differences, support them with their choices and guide them to become a better person.

Tatay Benito

My father is the foundation of our home. He is a good provider and has dedicated his life working to send us all to a good school. “Good provider to us” is giving all he got and most of the time “more than what he got”. My father works as a supervisor in Central Bank of the Philippines. Though he does not have enough to take home for pay, he still managed to send us all to college and to a good school too.

I remembered my father telling us the importance of education. He said his wish for us is to study hard and finish college. I remembered him saying that he regrets not going to school, he often said: “If only I studied harder and finish college, our situation will be better than this.”

During enrollment time my father will bring the title of our land and our house to the bank and serve as “collateral” for our educational loan. One time, my little brother wanted to buy something and he asks my father if he could have five pesos (our currency), my father gave his pay envelop to him. The coins fell off the envelope, my father only have about five pesos and about sixty cents. My little brother gave it back to him and never asks money from him anymore.

Another experience my eldest brother shared with me was when my father brought him to the cemetery, the jail and the museum, where they display the pictures of the President of the Philippines and their accomplishments. My father told him: “Son I brought you here to show you that these are your choices in life - either you die, go to jail or make the most out of your life and become a successful person; it is up to you to make that decision”.

With these inspiring stories and experiences that I learned and wanted to pass it on to my children. I would like them to make their own choices and whatever decisions they made, whether it is right or wrong, they need to take responsibility, find resolution and face the consequences of their actions.

These are my brothers and sister. Believe it or not, we never ever fight. We have so much respect for each other. When our parents ask us who is going to wash the dishes or clean something, all of us are in a hurry to do it first. When somebody gets to do it first, we still help each other out to finish the tasks. I am the fifth out of seven and I treat my elder brother and eldest sister with much respect as we have for our father or mother. In our culture, when your big brother asks you to do something, we just do it without asking questions. We just obey. If we have one candy, we will cut it into small pieces and get our shares, the weirdest thing is: the biggest portion of the candy will be left and nobody will take it or we give it to our youngest brother. We complement each other and respect each other’s privacy.

Our house has five rooms on the second floor. Our rooms do not have doors on it because my parents believed that an open room means open communication. Anyone can go in and out of any rooms. When I was little, we all sleep together on the floor with mat on it; except for my eldest sister and eldest brother they have their own bed as well as my parents. Nobody says: ‘it’s not fair!”

Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

Saturday, September 17, 2011

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