Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

I explored the Global Children’s Initiative website, http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative,  and three insights I gained were their work on children’s mental health, early childhood development, and children in crisis and conflict situations.

Mental health issues in children has been an under addressed issue with major implications for the bigger health and development of children and societies. To help with this issue they are developing an intensive agenda in education, research, and public engagement to address major gaps in knowledge and delivery of service. They are assessing mental health services for children in China, to prevent mental health issues in children affected by HIV/Aids in Rwanda, they are developing and evaluating family-based approaches, and in Barbados, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname, they are addressing child maltreatment and mental health outcomes.

Their work on early childhood development in other countries is, in diverse global environments they assess the quality in early childhood settings and programs, conduct assessments in Zambia to measure child development results related to malaria, and expanding effective interventions to improve preschool quality in Chile.

To address children in crisis and conflict they are working with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. Together they are using a science-based developmental view point into the assessment and management of the well-being of the children during man-made and natural crisis. Their focus is on immediate situations and long-term change.

As far as equity and excellence, they have a program called Education and Leadership Development (ELD). This program is to educate future leaders about health, behavior, and life-long impacts of the early years of life, support advanced and multidisciplinary research that will build the knowledge base for application of policy and practice, and provide professional development opportunities.

What a good program to ready our future leaders to help children and families have better lives.