Saturday, April 19, 2014

Early Emotional Development

I choose to further examine the West and Central Africa region on the UNICEF overview website.  This is one of the regions I have heard a lot about and want to learn more about.  Some of the countries included in this region would be Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Togo (UNICEF,n.d.)
Some of the challenges the children face in this region would be poverty, in which half of the population lives below the poverty line.  As we notice on television, where children are shown from Africa are hungry and sick.  More that 40% of girls and 30% of boys are not in school, which mean more children without schooling opportunities.  HIV/AIDS is another challenge in West and Central Africa where nearly 1/3 of the 25 million people in Sub Saharan Africa living with HIV.  According to UNICEF, in 2005, 170,000 child deaths were due to AIDS; 1.3 million children are in need of pediatric care and 600,000 women are pregnant with HIV+ and yet only 1.3% receives antiretroviral drugs to prevent the spread (UNICEF, n.d.)  

Many children that live in West and Central Africa is watching their hopes and dream crumble, because many of their family members and teachers has this devastated disease, AIDS.  There are many organizations working together to help the government in this country to put children on the policy agenda.  As an educator we all know that children are at risk and experience problems when having to take on the role of taking care of their parent or sibling with HIV. 
It’s very heart breaking to look and read about the innocent children and their parents caught up in the hardship in Africa.  It’s so very shocking when I hear about violence and sickness going on in Africa, despite alI  the up to date technology and knowledge we have.  I am so thankful to have clean water, food, shelter, and medical care.  As an early childhood educator, I feel very happy to teach my children about what’s going on in other countries, how we are so bless with many things. 
                                                          
                                    Reference:
UNICEF-Children of West and Central Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org

2 comments:

  1. It is super interesting to me that almost all countries around the world are in poverty. I found it very interesting after reading your blog that a lot of that part of the world is suffering from HIV/AIDS. That is a very saddening disease.

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  2. I really enjoyed your post. You provided a lot of information of the the many issues the children in your region face. It is sad to know that so many children are suffering from HIV/AIDS in those areas. They don't have access to the medicines like we do so they aren't able to get treatment or medicine to help them. Once they contract this disease its nothing they can do. Sad!

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