Thursday, January 22, 2009

Some sites I found

So, here I am waiting for the new episode of Bones to come on and I thought, why not see if I can find anything interesting to add to my blog?! I believe I have told just about everyone in the class about Anthony Bourdain's trip to Ghana--here's a link to a clip from the episode, unfortunately the whole episode isn't available online. I also found a project PBS has called Global Cafe. They've spotlighted a few countries, interviewing peace corps volunteers and students from the country being featured. The focal point it education. I thought it was interesting and enlightening given our discussion of education earlier the week and my own limited knowledge of the education system in Ghana. Also, I don't know if you guys are into following the news in Ghana, but my favorite place to check from time to time is a news site call Worldpress.org. It's a nonprofit that collects and translates (when necessary) world news. You can search news by world region or country, the site also provides maps, and has CIA stats. Their url is just http://www.worldpress.org.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

YAY I'm going to Ghana!

Okay so apparently I was supposed to say a little something about myself before I did my homework! :D This is my first time blogging too-- on my own blog anyway. As part of our program I'll be post here periodically responding to readings/discussions and just posting my reflections on our experiences as we prepare to go to Ghana and then take off for Ghana (woohoo!).

I am a Grad II student in the entry level OT program at VCU. I have studied abroad before in Chile and Germany, but have never been to Africa before and am very excited to go. I love traveling and trying new things. I'm looking forward to this trip as well because I'm getting to go with several students from the Grad I class-- so I get to study with four students I wouldn't otherwise have class with! :)

Response to "Child Development in Developing Countries"

It's hard to imagine the amount of need there is in the world, even with all the numbers and statistics the articles we read provided it's hard for me to really wrap my head around just exacty what the all the numbers mean. It is easy to see though that while progress has been made towards meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals, there is still a lot to be done. The authors noted on more than one occasion the lack of available information on the subject matter-- given this, the amount of information they provided and the detail in which they provided was impressive. The articles really gave me a better idea of what is going on world wide with children's health. I found the authors' discussion of characteristics that made programs successful (p. 234) and suggestions as to what research still needed to be done (p. 239) particularly interesting and useful. I am hoping these lists will help me be able to more effectively assess programs I encounter once in Ghana. Given the the severity of cognitive, social and motor impairments that results from stunting, it's strange to think of the difference interventions as simple as providing iodized salt or introducing more stimulation in home environments could make in a child's development.