Our Children

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A-C-A 4 You and Me! Dear Child Advocate, On Wednesday, March 21st at 1 p.m. EST, let’s stand with our children and young adults and celebrate the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will provide access to health coverage for more than 95 percent of America’s children and strengthen America's health care system for everyone. Let’s create a national trend on Twitter as we share real stories of real children and young adults. Join us and let’s all be grateful that there are now fewer uninsured children in America than any time on record—thanks to the ACA!! Listen to this precocious 4-year-old sing the ACA song. Watch Young Maeve Sing the ACA Song! Some of the big gains already enjoyed by children and young adults as a result of the ACA include: Insurance companies can no longer deny health coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. Health insurers must provide preventive care for children at no cost, a provision of the ACA that has already benefited 14 million children and families. Young adults can stay on their parents' insurance until they turn 26, which has already provided 2.5 million additional young people with health coverage. Share this video of charming young Atticus, and encourage your friends to sing along with the ACA song. Watch Atticus Celebrate Gains in Children’s Health! Follow CDF on Twitter @ChildDefender and join us on Wednesday, March 21st, at 1 p.m. EDT, for a ‘Tweetup’ on the important gains made in children’s health! Host your own Tweetup for children’s health and let’s stand together with our children and promise them we will never roll back the ACA health benefits children need to survive and thrive. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do to ensure all children have a Healthy Start in life! - Children’s Defense Fund

Poverty In our Communities

Food pantries feel the pinch

by Liz Rhoades

       

Food pantries feel the pinchby Liz RhoadesQueens Chronicle |                       

Michelle Moore is a single mom on a mission to feed her family. She travels around the borough from her Flushing home, going from one food pantry to another so that her son and father don’t go hungry.
“You have to come prepared to wait outside in the bad weather,”Moore said, standing next to her shopping cart she had lined with a large garbage bag.
On Monday, she was at the Kehilat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue on 78th Road in Kew Gardens Hills. Moore stops by every Monday for some groceries, whose amount is determined by the size of her family. This time she got turkey lunch meat, cold cereal, apple juice, peanut butter, fresh potatoes, canned vegetables and more.
Moore is among a growing number of Queens residents who find it necessary to visit food pantries on a regular basis due to the recession and continuing rise in unemployment, according to a recent study conducted by the Food Bank for New York City

POVERTY IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Micronutrients and Hidden Hunger

© UNICEF/DR/2011/Gonzalez

The lack of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, iodine and iron, is the main cause of “hidden hunger” and malnutrition in the world today.

“Vitamin and mineral deficiency is the source of the most massive ‘hidden hunger’ and malnutrition in the world today. The ‘hidden hunger’ due to micronutrient deficiency does not produce hunger as we know it. You might not feel it in the belly, but it strikes at the core of your health and vitality. It remains widespread, posing devastating threats to health, education, economic growth and to human dignity in developing countries.” (Kul C. Gautam, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF).

Hidden hunger prevents children from achieving the full development of their physical, intellectual and social potential.
The UNICEF office in the Dominican Republic is providing financial and technical support for the Public Health and Social Assistance Ministry (SESPAS) in the implementation of activities aimed at eliminating micronutrient deficiencies, by providing vitamin A supplements as part of their Extended Immunisation Programme, as well as the universal iodising of salt in order to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders.
Actions aimed at improving monitoring and improving public education about the importance of consuming iodised salt are also being supported. Other actors like the Ministry of Education, the General Standards and Regulations Office, salt manufacturers, municipal authorities and the consumers’ association are also involved in this process, as well as the WHO/PAHO and USAID, who are providing technical and financial support together with UNICEF.

UNICEF is focusing its activities on the 3.5 million children and adolescents and 240,000 pregnant mothers, taking into account that this age group is at the greatest risk of developing iodine deficiency.

In order to calculate the levels of iodine content in salt for human consumption, a study carried out by SESPAS through the Dr. Defilló National Laboratory was carried out. It revealed that 67% did not contain iodine and that only 13.7% of the samples analysed contained levels of iodine within the limits established by the state standards that sets the range at between 30-100 parts per million (ppm).

(Source: SESPAS; PAHO/WHO; UNICEF: Calculating the Concentration of Iodine in Nutritional Quality Salt at national level, at point of sale, between July 2003-February 2004, 2005.)
Likewise, UNICEF, as a basis for establishing its Information, Education and Communications strategy, sponsored a study on Behaviours, Attitudes and Practices that showed that 75% of the population still consumes rock salt even though this is forbidden under Dominican law (NORDOM 14).

(Source: SESPAS; UNICEF; Sinergy Consulting: Study of Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes and Practices concerning Iodised Salt consumption in Dominican Homes and the Communications Media)
The studies carried out revealed a lack of knowledge about the importance of consuming iodised salt, and based on this, UNICEF is promoting education and social mobilisation as one of the key points for achieving behaviour changes that will ensure children and young people’s right to health.

Government institutions are also being supported in the Sentinel Schools, for educating students about the importance of consuming iodised salt and the introduction of a system to monitor iodine levels in salt in schools.

Promoting the importance of iodised salt consumption has been directed at the Haitian population in the frontier zone as well as the Dominican public. This has been achieved by producing radio programmes in Kreyol as well as in Spanish. Local organisations that work with women in the border area have been given support for holding educational workshops about Iodine Deficiency

THE FACE OF POVERTY

Contacts

Since the last time I posted about my contacts ,I have been waiting for replys from the orginizations that I had picked, but I haven't had anything yet.I have had many newsletters from my orginizations and I have posted them on the blog for all to read and see.The orginization I picked that was not international is ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI). I am a big fan of this orginization.I think every person who works with children should subscribe ,or ask their job to pay for a subscription.This site is a good educational tool.It offers courses as well as there work with children.Here is a sample.

CCEI Announces New Online 'Dual Language Learning' Professional Development Course

Duluth, GA/ July 22, 2011 - ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI), an IACET approved, nationally accredited distance training institution dedicated exclusively to the child care industry, is proud to announce the addition of a new course, Dual Language Learning in the Early Childhood Environment.

Roughly one out of six Americans speaks a language other than English at home, and many early care providers increasingly find themselves serving children and families from a wide variety of language backgrounds. CCEI's new course, Dual Language Learning, provides early childhood professionals with strategies and tools for helping young children develop language and early literacy skills in English as well as their native language. Participants will learn the benefits of "dual language" learning for young children along with key strategies for increasing family engagement and promoting rich, dual language development in the classroom.

Visit them at
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=z6dwzybab&t=umyp5vgab.0.mqyw6sdab.z6dwzybab.92265&ts=S0640&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cceionline.edu%2F

Contacts

Dear Elizabeth, More Ways to Help Friend us on Facebook Make a gift to support our Global Action Fund Thank you for your signing up to receive news from Save the Children around the world and in the USA. You will get latest from the field and stories about the girls and boys participating in our education and health programs. You will also get reports about our relief workers who feed babies struggling during hunger crises, protect children caught in the cross-fire of unrest, provide health care for AIDS orphans, teach troubled youth to read, defend girls from exploitation and so much more. Thanks to people like you, Save the Children reached more than 74 million children in need in 2010, an increase of 10 million over 2009. We’ve responded to the needs of millions of children affected by crisis, including the epic earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, devastating tornadoes in America and typhoons in the Philippines. Our growing U.S. program served more than 75,000 children in early childhood education, literacy, nutrition and physical activity, and disaster preparedness. Thank you, as always, for your compassion and willingness to learn more about lending a helping hand to children in need. Carolyn Miles President & CEO Save the Children

Contacts

This week I was able to make contact with two orginizations UNICEF and Save the Children.
I am very excited to see if my contacts will answer me back.My first step was to go to the contact us site and write a brief note on who I am and studying, as well as why I wanted a contact.They responded and now I wait.these are my contacts in case anyone else can use them as a starting point.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/domrepublic_contact.html

twebster@savechildren.org