Communication With International Contacts

I have sent several e-mails to the international professionals and organizations that I contacted in Week One. I have not received an e-mail back between any of the professionals or organizations.  Therefore, I focused on the alternative section of this week's Blog Assignment.

I chose to read about poverty in India.  The first case study that I read about was "Poverty and ill health pushed Banwari out of school and into work."  This article was about a 17 year-old child that is a family of ten.  Banwari had to drop out of school because his parents could not afford to pay for his education and his father also was sick.  "According to Banwari, his family had to take out a loan for setting up the loom.  However, the income from the sale of carpets is helping the family to pay off the loan." (Childhood).  He had no choice other than to help his family out by working and weaving carpets.  In this case study, the family was able to keep only one of their children in education and the other children had to work by creating carpets.  One thing that I learned from this case study is that in India, a lot of the families are bigger families.  I also learned from this case study that they hired other people to help them sell their carpets, when they did not have the money to put their children through school.

Another thing that I thought was interesting is the children helped out a lot around the house.  "It is often the case that children either miss classes or drop out of school completely because they to need help with family work or go out and find a job." (Childhood).  Very few children in India tend to finish school, they are used to do work around the family.  

The last thing that I learned about India from the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre's website is that the schools are trying to offer free food to the children so that they want to attend school.  "The idea behind the Midday Meal Scheme is that it provides an incentive for children to attend school, and for parents to send them to school - the scheme has boosted school enrollment and attendance, as well as contributing to children's nutritional intake." (Childhood).


References: 
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s  (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/)