Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

 Hello classmates this week I ask my conversation partner Karen Graham Glyndwr University in Wales, UK, to help me understand the specific issues of poverty they encounter in their professional lives as well as those they are concerned about throughout the world. This is the response I received from Graham (2013).

karengraham Graham

To Me

Today at 2:46 AM

Good morning Sheena, 

Wales is a small country, with geographical challenges due to a proportionately large mid Wales’s rural area. This area is sometimes regarded as separating the North and South because road networks are not so great. It brings with it challenges of navigating the area to support children and families. For example, someone was explaining yesterday that to support an early years setting can take 2 hours to travel to and 2 hours return in Mid Wales. This is not the case in the North or South.

We talk about poverty as being emotional, social, educational or financial poverty and there is a significant focus, on working to deal with inequity brought about by all types of poverty. That means working with the current generations who experience poverty for their own sake and to prevent intergenerational poverty.

We have a Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty who needs to understand the very complex issues surrounding this theme. In the early years our focus is ensuring children are supported in families capable of supporting the child (we work hard to ensure families get the right support and offer services around adult education, domestic violence, parenting programs etc.), that housing is adequate and that specific education programs provide early intervention and support to ensure children have improved life chances from the very start. Our Foundation Phase curriculum is testimony to this and aims to work to reduce inequality.

I am always interested to find that internationally we seem to share similar interests professionally and tend to agree the best way forward for children and families. Always in different places on the same trajectory. This is why it is good to be working internationally on the children's rights agenda. If we are looking at child needs we can't go far wrong. We are all making step changes to improvement.

For me, focusing on work that impacts on children's lives now is critical for this and future generations. The breadth of the (UNCRC) United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children is a challenge but encompasses the themes and issues well!

I hope this helps you in your mission.

Kind regards

Karen

Sent from my iPad