Provision Of Psychosocial Support And Education Of Vulnerable Children

Globally, children are highly vulnerable and unjustifiably affected by the difficulties afflicting society. They face social, physical, psychological, and emotional turmoil that stems from varying degrees of violence, abuse, neglect, abandonment, bereavement, and other psychosocial needs that often affect their education. Parental and other key stakeholders’ involvement is essential in ensuring that children develop to their full potential. Provision of Psychosocial Support and Education of Vulnerable Children highlights the plight of children and explores a transdisciplinary and multisectoral approach in providing sustainable psychosocial support to have quality education that is inclusive of 21st century skills. Childhood is an inimitable experience that is common to every individual child in the world irrespective of their ethnicity, culture, or any other arbitrary extractor we choose to apply. Covering topics such as life skills education, psychosocial support, and holistic integration, this book is an essential reference for education stakeholders, school personnel, private pre-primary schools, teacher training institutions, parents, pre-service teachers, human services professionals, researchers, and academicians.

The experience of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in witnessing their parents going through illness and eventual death is a traumatic one. These children also have the challenge of adjusting to and coping with sometimes little known family members who take over the responsibility of caring for them. It is on this basis that OVC thus need effective psychosocial care and support services that can address such situations. This study was undertaken in Mogoditshane and Tlokweng in Botswana in 2007. In particular the study set out to identify the psychosocial needs of OVC and to determine factors that facilitate the provision of psychosocial services to OVC and factors that inhibit or discourage the provision of such support. The study also intended to identify measures through which families, households, teachers, social workers and other support structures could cope in providing psychosocial support services OVC. The study used qualitative methods. Systematic and purposive sampling criteria were used to select the respondents. The respondents consisted of OVC, parents/guardians, guidance and counseling teachers, social workers, policy makers and other stakeholders

In K-12 education, minority women leaders must navigate a complex maze of challenges that deeply impact their personal and professional lives. The journey of these leaders is marked by a series of starts and stops, demanding an extraordinary degree of resilience, mentorship, and leadership coaching. Despite the theoretical backing and organizational intent, the stark reality is that educational leadership roles for minority women often lack the necessary preparation and concerted efforts essential to supporting their unique needs. The resulting shortfall hampers their ability to sustain success over time. Minority Women in K-12 Education Leadership sheds light on the intersection of gender and ethnicity within educational leadership and addresses the various aspects of minority women's experiences. The objective of Minority Women in K-12 Education Leadership is clear—to provide readers, educational allies, educators, administrators, and stakeholders with a profound understanding of the intersections of gender, leadership, and ethnicity/color in educational leadership. This book goes beyond identifying challenges; it celebrates the resilience of minority women leaders, explores the support systems they rely on, and offers practical strategies for success. The content delves into the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of their experiences, aiming to bridge theoretical and practical concepts and provide valuable insights for practitioners, scholars, and stakeholders.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This open access book is a collection of 12 case studies capturing decades of experience improving health care and outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Each case study is written by healthcare managers and providers who have implemented health improvement projects using quality improvement methodology, with analysis from global health experts on the practical application of improvement methods. The book shows how frontline providers in health and social services can identify gaps in care, propose changes to address those gaps, and test the effectiveness of their changes in order to improve health processes and outcomes. The chapters feature cases that provide real-life examples of the challenges, solutions, and benefits of improving healthcare quality and clearly demonstrate for readers what quality improvement looks like in practice:Addressing Behavior Change in Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health with Quality Improvement and Collaborative Learning Methods in GuatemalaHaiti’s National HIV Quality Management Program and the Implementation of an Electronic Medical Record to Drive Improvement in Patient CareScaling Up a Quality Improvement Initiative: Lessons from Chamba District, IndiaPromoting Rational Use of Antibiotics in the Kyrgyz RepublicStrengthening Services for Most Vulnerable Children through Quality Improvement Approaches in a Community Setting: The Case of Bagamoyo District, TanzaniaImproving HIV Counselling and Testing in Tuberculosis Service Delivery in Ukraine: Profile of a Pilot Quality Improvement Team and Its Scale‐Up JourneyImproving Health Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Case Book will find an engaged audience among healthcare providers and administrators implementing and managing improvement projects at Ministries of Health in low- to middle-income countries. The book also aims to be a useful reference for government donor agencies, their implementing partners, and other high-level decision makers, and can be used as a course text in schools of public health, public policy, medicine, and development. ACKNOWLEDGMENT:This work was conducted under the USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project, USAID Award No. AID-OAA-A-12-00101, which is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). DISCLAIMER:The contents of this book are the sole responsibility of the Editor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. div=""^

This report forms part of a project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to implement a strategy for the care of orphans and vulnerable children in Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe with a review of the available scientific information on interventions aimed at children, families, households, and communities.