Global Initiatives are Changing the World- one child at a time.
Looking over Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative Site (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/) is proof of the fact in the title of this post. It is amazing to learn of all the things that are being done around the globe to educate people about early childhood development. For example, in sub- Saharan Africa, the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) is working to address the knowledge gap that exists, and to measure the effects of an anti-malaria initiative by working together with a group of organizations to provide the ZamCAT, a comprehensive instrument for assessing the children's physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling. The hope is that an assessment tool of this type will deepen the knowledge and understanding of child development.
In Brazil, a program called Nucelo Ciencia Pela Infancia was launched with the intentions of using the science of child health and development to foster strong policies and solicit more funding for young children and their families.
The Global Children's Initiative as a whole has been major in getting these programs, and many others, up and running. They are in-part responsible for the interest in child development that has taken place globally. As far as equity and excellence are concerned, in Brazil, educational videos about child development and the science of the brain have been translated and adapted in Portuguese and politicians, policymakers, public managers, civil-society leaders get together for training courses on early childhood development. This shows great future promise for their children as the community gets together to lead.
Also, the Global Children's Initiative uses the Global EC Research Fund to assess the quality in early childhood programs globally, and pilot assessments like the ZamCAT to measure child development outcomes, monitoring improvements on the effectiveness of interventions in Chile, and considering and exploring the impact of war on youth in Sierra Leone.
This is a great organization and I am eager to be a part of it in any way I can.