Getting To Know Your International Contacts

I actually have received one email back from the 6 or 7 that I sent out and here is what it said:

Britanie,

Thank you for your message.  You might be best served by contacting the
Early Childhood Commission.  The Executive Director is Mrs. Winsome
Johns-Gayle (http://my.campuscruiser.com/em2PageServlet?cx=u&pg=papp&tg=Email-readmail&main=1&qi=I3FpCiNUaHUgTWFyIDE3IDE2OjE3OjI4IEVEVCAyMDExCmZvbGRlcklkPTEwMDA1NTg2MTkKX3NvcnRCeT1yZWNlaXZlZERhdGUKX3NvcnRPcmRlcj0xCm1vZGU9bG9hZApzdGFydD0xCg==&seq=2&msgId=1102#); you may indicate that I referred you to
her.  She and her team would have a better sense of the national
interventions you might be interested in.

all the best

Kenneth      Kingston UNICEF/JAM/TACR/UNICEF 

I actually emailed her right then and I have yet to hear anything back from her and her team, but I am hoping to hear something back from her next week.

In the mean time however, I visited the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/
This website provided great information and several other links such as, publications, pictures, and stories of the children.  CHIP aims to fill some of the gaps in knowledge about childhood poverty internationally and in partner counties, and to work with others to gain commitments to action (CHIP).

I read up on information about research and projects on going in India to help with poverty. In India CHIP researched factors underpinning intergenerational poverty cycles and role of gender and caste-based discrimination in maintaining poverty cycles.

What they found that contributed to the continuing cycle of poverty in India is
1.) Drought and environment deterioration have significantly undermined livelihoods and exacerbated poverty in Rajasthan. Contributors are:pressures on children to work and undermining their education and health
2.) 10-15% children migrate for work
3.) 18-45% migrant children's work constituted for the poorest household's income
4.) Indebtedness affected over 80% of households and major factor to intergenerational poverty cycles

At this time national and state development programs in health, education, and livelihoods are not fulfilling their potential to help break poverty cycles.
Developments not be fulfilled because of:
*under-resourcing
*limited accountability of staff to the people they are intended to serve
As a result core education, health, and nutrition programs are of variable quality and not all available on a reliable basis in the areas studied.

By reading this page I have come to understand the difficulty that this country and many others are enduring because the lack of resources and the lack of work effort being done on these families part. So many children and families are suffering and this is a great project to help stop the cycle of poverty. However, more effort and support needs to be done for anyone to benefit from this.
I hope that I will hear from some of my contacts soon because I would truly love to know how they are dealing with the issue of poverty and other issues that may have raised.
I can't wait to read what my colleagues have found out from their contacts.