Group items tagged

Rana Najadeh, 12, recalled her horror as she bore witness to the destruction. “I got very scared when the soldiers came to demolish our class,” she said. “I rushed out to check on my six year old brother Suleiman, who was crying.” The demolition did not end there, however, as nine other residential structures were also destroyed that day, leaving 30 children and their families homeless. 

Thankfully, UNICEF and Islamic Relief Worldwide took action to address the tragic situation, by rehabilitating the school and providing a better environment for the students. In addition, UNICEF partnered with both the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), to help the traumatized children find relief from their fear and anger by providing psychosocial sessions through dance, drama, arts and play.

amic Relief Worldwide took action to address the tragic situation, by rehabilitating the school and providing a better environment for the students. In addition, UNICEF partnered with both the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), to help the traumatized children find relief from their fear and anger by providing psychosocial sessions through dance, drama, arts and play. “Sometimes for children it is simply the opportunity to play and have fun – be a child – in a safe environment,” said UNICEF Deputy Special Representative, Douglas G. Higgins. “In the end, the psychosocial project is important for children to have a sense of stability, normality and opportunity to reach their potential.” Dkaika children are not the first ones to receive help however, as UNICEF has worked with ECHO since 2003 to help Palestinian children and their families cope with the conflict and violence that affects their daily lives. The activities focus on children who live in areas exposed to frequent home and school demolitions, as well as young Bedouins and children with disabilities. “We must not fail Dkaika children,” said the Deputy Special Representative. ”Education is the cornerstone for peace and security and is at the heart of equity.” var emailarticleloc = location.href; emailarticleloc = emailarticleloc.replace("http://www.unicef.org",""); emailarticleloc = emailarticleloc.replace("http://unicef.org",""); var emailarticle = "Email this article Email this article UNICEFBLOG.addentry({ linkClassName: "bloglink", image: "", title: "UNICEF provides support to Palestinian students through rehabilitation and psychosocial sessions", blurb: "DKAIKA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 29 September 2011 - Located just 70 metres away from the Green Line - the 1949 Armistice Line – in Israeli-controlled Area ‘C’, the villagers of Dkaika are forced to suffer under the daily risk of home demolition and harassment. ", languageVariant: "ENG", transition: 'b', offsetLeft: "-150", offsetTop: "-440" }); .UNICEFBlog { background-color: #F3F3F3; color: #000000 !important; border: 1px solid #C3C3C3; height: 425px; width: 425px; } .UNICEFBlog h2, .UNICEFBlog h3, .UNICEFBlog p, .UNICEFBlog a, .UNICEFBlog li { margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; font: 10px verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important;} .UNICEFBlog img { border: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlog a { text-decoration: none; } .UNICEFBlog h2, .UNICEFBlog h3 { margin: 0 0 7px !important; } .UNICEFBlog .content { padding: 10px !important; padding-bottom: 20px !important; } .UNICEFBlog #closebtn { float: right; height: 18px; width: 18px; } .UNICEFBlog h2 { color: #DF5E32 !important; font-size: 15px !important; font-weight: bold !important; } .UNICEFBlog p { font-size: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; } .UNICEFBlog strong { font-size: 10px !important; } .UNICEFBlog form { margin: 10px 0 3px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed { margin: 8px 0 !important; padding: 10px 5px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed { background: #ffffff none !important; border: 1px solid #0099FF !important; border-width: 4px 0 1px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h2, .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3, .UNICEFBlogEmbed p, .UNICEFBlogEmbed a, .UNICEFBlogEmbed li { margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; font: 10px verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important;} .UNICEFBlogEmbed img { border: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a { text-decoration: none; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h2 { margin-bottom: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3 { margin: 0px !important; margin-top: 2px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3 a { color: #0000ff !important; font-size: 12px !important; font-weight: bold !important; font-family: arial,sans-serif !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a.img { float: left !important; margin: 0 7px 1px 0 !important; border: 0; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a.img img { border: 1px solid #999999 !important; width: 100px; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed p { margin-top: 2px !important; } .UNICEFPush { clear: both; font-size: 1px; height: 1px; line-height: .1; } Blog This Article Blog this article Post this article to your blog. The story's headline, main picture and summary will be displayed on your page as in the preview below. Writing the rest of the blog post will be up to you! Click in the area below, then copy the code and paste it in your blog page: <div class='UNICEFBlogEmbed' dir='ltr'> <h2><a href='http://www.unicef.org'><img src='http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/images/unicefSmallBlue.png' alt='UNICEF' /></a></h2> <h3><a href='http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/oPt_59933.html'>UNICEF provides support to Palestinian students through rehabilitation and psychosocial sessions</a></h3> <p class='embed_teaser'>DKAIKA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 29 September 2011 - Located just 70 metres away from the Green Line - the 1949 Armistice Line – in Israeli-controlled Area ‘C’, the villagers of Dkaika are forced to suffer under the daily risk of home demolition and harassment. </p> <div class='UNICEFPush'> </div> </div> <style type='text/css'> .UNICEFBlog { background-color: #F3F3F3; color: #000000 !important; border: 1px solid #C3C3C3; height: 425px; width: 425px; } .UNICEFBlog h2, .UNICEFBlog h3, .UNICEFBlog p, .UNICEFBlog a, .UNICEFBlog li { margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; font: 10px verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important;} .UNICEFBlog img { border: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlog a { text-decoration: none; } .UNICEFBlog h2, .UNICEFBlog h3 { margin: 0 0 7px !important; } .UNICEFBlog .content { padding: 10px !important; padding-bottom: 20px !important; } .UNICEFBlog #closebtn { float: right; height: 18px; width: 18px; } .UNICEFBlog h2 { color: #DF5E32 !important; font-size: 15px !important; font-weight: bold !important; } .UNICEFBlog p { font-size: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; } .UNICEFBlog strong { font-size: 10px !important; } .UNICEFBlog form { margin: 10px 0 3px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed { margin: 8px 0 !important; padding: 10px 5px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed { background: #ffffff none !important; border: 1px solid #0099FF !important; border-width: 4px 0 1px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h2, .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3, .UNICEFBlogEmbed p, .UNICEFBlogEmbed a, .UNICEFBlogEmbed li { margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; font: 10px verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif !important;} .UNICEFBlogEmbed img { border: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a { text-decoration: none; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h2 { margin-bottom: 0 !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3 { margin: 0px !important; margin-top: 2px !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed h3 a { color: #0000ff !important; font-size: 12px !important; font-weight: bold !important; font-family: arial,sans-serif !important; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a.img { float: left !important; margin: 0 7px 1px 0 !important; border: 0; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed a.img img { border: 1px solid #999999 !important; width: 100px; } .UNICEFBlogEmbed p { margin-top: 2px !important; } .UNICEFPush { clear: both; font-size: 1px; height: 1px; line-height: .1; } </style> Preview: http://www.un

Intro to Peace Ed Part 3: Pedagogy & Practice – Teachers Without Borders (TWB) and National Peace Academy (NPA), online (September 3-30, 2012) For more information click on the link above.

The case has prompted the government to set up a special team to help schools and board of education curb bullying. The new anti-bullying task force will be responsible for identifying cases of serious bullying at an early stage and giving advice to education boards and schools, said Hirofumi Hirano, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, at a press conference Tuesday.

The quake Saturday, tied for the fifth largest in the world since 1900,

Chile’s government had not yet requested assistance. All international relief groups were on standby, and the International Federation of Red Crosses and Red Crescents said the Chilean Red Cross indicated that it did not need external assistance at this point.

In Talca, 167 miles south of Santiago, almost every home in the center of the city was severely damaged, and on Saturday night, people slept on the streets in the balmy night air near fires built with wood from destroyed homes. All but two of the local hospital’s 13 wings were in ruins, said Claudio Martínez, a doctor at the hospital. “We’re only keeping the people in danger of dying,” he said. Dr. Martínez said the hospital staff had tried to take some people to Santiago for treatment in the morning, but the roads were blocked at the time.

Cellphone and Internet service was sporadic throughout the country, considered one of the most wired in Latin America, complicating rescue efforts.

The earthquake struck at 3:34 a.m. in central Chile, centered roughly 200 miles southwest of Santiago at a depth of 22 miles, the United States Geological Survey reported.

The Geological Survey said that another earthquake on Saturday, a 6.3-magnitude quake in northern Argentina, was unrelated. In Salta, Argentina, an 8-year-old boy was killed and two of his friends were injured when a wall collapsed, The Associated Press reported.

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded was also in Chile: a 9.5-magnitude quake struck in the spring of 1960 that struck near Concepción and set off a series of deadly tsunamis that killed people as far away as Hawaii and Japan.

But that earthquake, which killed nearly 2,000 people and left more than two million homeless at the time, prepared officials and residents in the region for future devastating effects. Shortly after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in Valparaíso in 1985, the country established strict building codes, according to Andre Filiatrault, the director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research at the University at Buffalo.

According to US AID, there are approximately 600,000 displaced people living in 416 makeshift camps in Port-au-Prince. Sanitation conditions in the camps remain a grave concern. With heavy seasonal rains fast approaching, the population is extremely vulnerable to exposure and water-born disease.

Two leading directors of Doctors Without Borders have called the relief effort to date "broadly insufficient." In a March 5 interview, they say that, “The lack of shelter and the hygiene conditions represent a danger not only in terms of public health, but they are also an intolerable breach of the human dignity of all these people.”

Conditions are also critical outside the earthquake zone. Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city located 120 km north of Port au Prince, has received an estimated influx of 50,000 refugees. Its mayor, Michel St. Croix, recently told the Miami Herald, “We need housing, sanitation, security -- we need everything.'' He said the city has received next to no assistance from the United Nations nor the International Red Cross.

In an interview with Associated Press on March 5, Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive repeated his government’s growing concern with the international aid effort. "Too many people are raising money without any controls, and don't explain what they're doing with it."

Farmer warned against the “trauma vultures” descending on Haiti. He asked why so many years of aid and charitable funds going to Haiti has left the country poorer than ever.

Canada was one of the few large countries in the world that did not send civilian emergency rescue teams to Haiti. Its official aid mission arrived one week after the earthquake in the form of two warships and 2,000 military personnel. They pitched into the relief effort and earned praise for their work. But most of the assistance brought by the military, including its field hospital in Léogâne and its emergency health center in Jacmel, have now been withdrawn.

“The Canadian military is not a relief agency. It helped out with short-term needs. Aid and reconstruction is a long-term process. Who is going to pick up where the military’s work left off?”

Prior to the earthquake, Cuba had some 350 health professionals volunteering in Haiti. That number, including graduates and students from the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in Cuba, has expanded considerably. Since 2005, 550 Haitian doctors have graduated from ELAM. The school received its first Haitian students in 1999. Currently, there are 570 students from Haiti attending the school.

Timely and informative articles and videos are also posted to the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network (http://canadahaitiaction.ca/) and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (http://ijdh.org/).

The report says: “the cause of this is failure to use assessment to diagnose pupils’ and to guide teaching and inadequate practice as these pupils do their work. Primary Six pupils, whose teachers had a university degree or Grade III teaching certificate, performed better than those whose head teachers had a Grade V teaching certificate. Pupils with head teachers who reside at school performed poorer than those whose head teachers live outside the school.”

But while the Unesco report examines the effects of conflict on education, it criticises donor countries for skewing assistance towards a small group of "strategic" countries while neglecting the world's other equally poor and equally conflict-affected countries. While aid for basic education increased more than fivefold in Afghanistan during the past five years, for example, it stagnated or declined in other conflict-affected countries, such as Ivory Coast.

Globally, more children are going to school than ever before but, according to the report, the number of children out of school is falling far too slowly, and progress is far too varied across the different regions of the world.

Half-of the world's out-of-school children live in just 15 countries. The largest population of out-of-school children is in Nigeria (8.3 million), followed by Pakistan (7.3 million), India (5.6 million), Ethiopia (2.7 million), and Bangladesh (2 million)

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 10 million children drop out of school every year

It also points to key capacity gaps – for example, that another 1.9 million teachers will be needed by 2015 to achieve universal primary education

The shortage is so great," he says, "that those who do come into the system choose where they will work. We do not have the resources to pay incentives to place them where they are most needed.''

In his office in the provincial capital, Lubango, director of education Américo Chicote, 48, describes a "crisis'' that seems without end. "Our biggest challenge is to get children into school but then we have to find people to teach them. In Huíla province we have about 700,000 children of school age and 19,000 people teaching them. At the end of the war we had 200 schools. We now have 1,714 schools but we are still teaching 40% of our pupils under trees, and the school-age population is growing at a rate of 3% per year. Results are suffering. There are 171 days in the school year but there are not 171 days of good weather. We just have to do our best.''

Currently, anyone with a grade 10 education can sit the exam to become a teacher.

"We estimate that around 40% of our teachers are not properly qualified. So far, training initiatives have reached about 3,000 teachers in the province. The scheme needs to be expanded to reach more teachers across more subjects,'' he says.

"I am doing my best,'' says Florinda, who has a grade 10 education and eight years' experience as a teacher. She hopes in due course to be given on-the-job training. "I would love to learn some methods for animating my teaching. But to tell you the truth, in all this dust and heat, if I can just keep their attention for a whole lesson I feel I have done well.''

Johnson, the student teacher in Madison, said he believes the new performance assessment will serve as a valuable tool. "Passing the Praxis II just meant I had content knowledge," he said. "What's more important is for me to show I can convey that science knowledge to a class full of students."

Desiree Pointer Mace, assistant professor and associate dean for graduate programs at Alverno's School of Education, likes the assessment's layers: Teachers have to provide a written reflection of their teaching practice, and the 10- to 15-minute video gives some indication of how they interact in a classroom.

"It doesn't test what you can recall and push out; it tests the work of teaching and how you connect to students," Pointer Mace said. "Then the whole thing must be graded by someone who is independent but knows about teaching." Alverno has long emphasized performance-based exams and the use of video as a tool for self-critique, so Pointer Mace said it's not a huge shift for the program to adapt to the new assessment.