Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

I have been fortunate to make contact with one of my conversation partners. She is Mrs Michelle McBean, an early childhood professional. She works with the UNICEF Office in Guyana and she also heads the Early Childhood Department at the University of Guyana.She believes that UNICEF has been outstanding in its work to reduce poverty in Guyana and around the world. I was directed to the UNICEF website Guyana to read about what has been happening specifically in Guyana. Mrs McBean is currently spearheading a UNICEF funded project that  provides training opportunities for caregivers who work with children in the 0-3 age category since most caregivers who work at this level are untrained. She believes that the early years are critical and persons who work with children during the early years need to be well trained.
 I was pleased to learn that among the many goals that UNICEF is working towards achieving is the  elimination of poverty and hunger.There are several programs that place emphasis on monitoring the situation of children and women in Guyana, and on the continuous improvement of monitoring and evaluation systems, which can produce reliable disaggregated data and analysis, to help better understand and address the issues of poverty affecting children and women. Education is the way out of poverty and UNICEF has partnered with the government to propel primary education. Currently, Guyana is on track to achieving universal primary education with net primary enrolment rates consistently above 95% since 2000 (MDG Report 2011).

I look forward to hearing from my other contacts during the weeks ahead.





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