Professional Hopes and Goals

A hope that I have when I think about working with children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds is that we can all be accepting of each other, our cultures and values.
A goal I would like to set would be for all the Early Childhood field to embrace the project of designing global citizens. We have to start somewhere and I believe starting with our youngest citizens is the best place to start.
I wish all my fellow students a successful journey, many rewards and much happiness. I has been my sincere pleasure working and learning with you all.
Thanks!
Deb

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I am working as a Child Life Specialist in a hospital where we are receiving victims from a major catastrophe in Guam. There was an earthquake in the Philippines, and that caused a tsunami in Guam. The island is so small, many people were swept away. It was a 12 foot wave. This particular family lost the mom and their little boy. They were walking to their car and the little girl fell down. The rushing water pulled her under a truck and she held onto the truck. The little boy was in a stroller with his mom pushing him. The water swept them both away. The girl was found hours later when the truck driver returned to his truck. The dad had already been looking for his family since the tsunami ended. This girl suffered abrasions to her hands and legs from holding onto the truck and the debri  that scraped her legs while she was holding onto the truck. Her major difficulty was emotional. She saw her mom and little brother get carried away in the water and is having nightmares about the screaming she heard.
They transferred this family to another Micronesian island, Palau. I am a CLS at the local hospital. the ED doctor wants to keep her for observation. I will ask dad to tell me about their extended family, their customs about family members passing away, their food choices, and any suggestions he has for comforting his daughter. I hope that by gathering this information, I can enable them to accept what has happened and to begin healing. I will do my best to offer hope and comfort to this family and encourage them to get to a place where healing can begin.

Life Lessons Learned

I have a memory of a movie I watched, called Nell. She experienced bias, prejudice and oppression. Nell was twin who grew up in the woods with her grandma who had a stroke. She and her sister had their own twin language and their language model was her grandmother whose speech was impaired from a stroke. The grandmother and sister passed away, so Nell was left alone. She was found sometime later and her "rescuer" was very nice to her, but obviously the people who evaluated her were biased because of her situation and she experienced prejudice from people who look at her outward characteristics. Nell was oppressed because of her situation. She had no control over things surrounding her growing up. Being poor, illiterate and alone were not choices Nell made.

This made me feel empathetic with Nell. She was wounded and alone with a long road to her recovery. I am not really sure she felt the need to "recover" as much as her rescuers did.

I believe that her rescuers would have to be more accepting of her cultural differences and get to know her as a person to help her determine the direction in which she wants to go. Equity would be greater because Nell would become an active participant in her own life.