International contacts part 3

As I have yet to hear from my international contacts, I have continued to choose the alternative assignment. This week it focuses on the UNESCO’s website. Three insights I gained after thoroughly investing the website include the following:

UNESCO specializes in education on an international level including headquarters in Paris France and an additional 52 field offices. The field offices are located in Iraq, Guatemala, Brussels, Beijing, and Bangkok to name a few. Many are located in areas within Africa that I have never heard of. This struck me as amazing that UNESCO is reaching people everywhere to teach a main goal of the program which is to teach peace, decrease poverty, and about equal rights. Africa is a main area that the organization focuses on as well as gender equality.

One of the organization’s beliefs is that education is a human right for all people throughout life. UNESCO is the only organization in the United Nations mandated to cover all aspects of education and has been trusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda. UNESCO will also launch International Literacy Day 2016 in September. It will mark the 50th anniversary of the event and will take place in Paris, France. The event celebrates the eradication of illiteracy put in place by the World Congress Ministers of Education.

Upon looking further into the website, I found information on how UNESCO is making an effort to educate about HIV and AIDS. As we proceed through this program, we have to stop and think about how important a child’s health is to their education. Through their process, UNESCO is focusing on three key aspects including building country capacity for the knowledge of HIV and AIDS, strengthening HIV and sexuality education, and advancing gender equality. I do not often think of this as an issue in education but it most definitely is. As an educator, I want to help keep our children aware and healthy. I think that UNESCO is doing an amazing job at making the public aware of the issues and putting forth the effort to educate about the lack of education in areas such as Africa.

In regards to my professional goals, I am very interested in the health and education of children and I was amazed to see how much UNESCO has done and continues to do in countries suffering from poverty.

Reference
Unesco. (n.d.). Education. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/