The International Child Resource

The organization that I chose to explore is the International Child Resource Center (IRCI).  This organization currently oversees projects in Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nepal, the USA, Chile, India, Malaysia, and Sweden.  Their goal is to foster a world where "all children and families are able to fulfill their greatest potential" (International Child Resource Center [IRCI], n.d.).

The organization has highlighted five main areas of focus to achieve this goal.  They hope to support early childhood care and education, in particular by providing high quality and developmentally appropriate early childhood care.  They advocate for children's rights to safe and stable lives that are free from violence or abuse.  They desire the empowerment of women and girls, hoping for girls to have an opportunity to succeed without discrimination, exploitation, or gender based violence.  They provide services focused on maternal and child health, particularly relating to HIV/AIDS treatment.  And finally, they believe in grassroots community development in order to create sustainability and self sufficiency.

http://www.icrichild.org/kenya/

I also found it interesting to find out that the IRCI also has three early childhood centers in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I can only imagine how awesome their programs must be!

http://www.icrichild.org/united-states/

I spent a good amount of time reading through the IRCI's blog looking at recent issues and trends.  Their most recent blog posts talk about disaster relief and the importance of donations for these causes.  The issue or trend that I would like to highlight, however, came from a post in February of 2015.  I feel this post was relevant both to their goals as an organization, as well as to the goals of our program.  The post was titled "A Free Resource on Safe and Healthy Child Care."  The IRCI formed a collaboration in order to create a resource for parents and caregivers on how to maintain child health and reduce illness and injuries from daily child care.  There are twenty resources on the site about illness, injury prevention, food preparation, emergency preparedness, and safe practices.  Amazingly, the resource is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Mandarin, and is updated regularly to reflect the most recent information.  This resource addresses the organization's focus of helping to provide high quality early childhood care, but also addresses issues of diversity and poverty in terms of access to quality information.  I imagine this resource could be helpful to all of us, as well.  Here is the link to the website: http://www.globalhealthychildcare.dreamhosters.com/.

http://www.icrichild.org/blog/2015/2/3/learn-how-to-keep-your-child-healthy

I look forward to reading about the resources everyone else found this week.

Amy

International Child Resource Institute (n.d.). Our Vision.  Retrieved from http://www.icrichild.org/ourvision/

International Child Resource Institute Blog (2015, February 10). A Free Resource on Safe and Healthy Child Care.  Retrieved from http://www.icrichild.org/blog/2015/2/3/learn-how-to-keep-your-child-healthy