International Contacts-Poverty
One of my conversation partners name is Junior. Junior is teaches in Togo. He studied in France for his upper level education. Here are the questions that I asked Junior, and his answers:
Me: Are the classrooms that you teach in very diverse? In addition how is diversity measured there….by tribes, language, ethnicity, cultures?
Junior: Poverty here is very high.
There are class system in every community here. The rich on the top, followed by the middle class, and finally come the poorest.
There are all types of diversity you listed (tribes, language, ethnicity, and cultures).
I had the chance to teach in a private school and there study rooms are a little better (maximum 30 per class) unlike public school there are over 50-60 per class.
Me: How is the health care there for the children? Do the children have enough food, water, clothes… etc?
Junior: The children have not many hospital so the health here for not only children but
all of us is below. Many disease, and the mortality rate is high especially for
child. Not enough food and water for children, and most died at young age.
Me: Do you know what the average income is there?
Junior: The average income here is very low and is 38000 cfa(80-83$) by month.
Me: Anything else you can share in regards to “poverty” and the lifestyle and living arrangements there in regards to young children ages birth to seven years old.
Junior: Young children are the most vulnerable to extreme poverty. Most especially in village many died soon after birth. The education problem also affects many children especially in rural areas. But it’s no longer. The government passed a law to help children. Currently free education is free for children attending public schools. But parents still complain each academic year that the spend on fees and all the steps they need to do before their children are allowed. Most do not have the chance of being accepted. But when you move on to the university degrees, it was fortunate to receive a grant of up to 230$ per year.
I enjoyed communicating with Junior. He had a lot to share. Poverty in the sense of how think of it is still very common even among the children with educated parents. I copied and pasted what he said pretty much word for word. I wanted to show you all how well some educators are able to communicate the English language. Yes it’s not 100% grammatically correct but very close. I did clean it up a little bit but not much. I’m saddened to say that I would not be able to communicate in his language if I tried.
Sherry, it was fascinating to read your conversation with Junior. In addition to highlighting the issues of extreme poverty and infant/child mortality in Togo, your post also sheds light on the value of free and high-quality education for children, which we may take for granted in the U.S. Thank you for sharing this important perspective. -Susan
ReplyDeleteSherry,
ReplyDeleteI was not able to do an international contact with anyone. I was wondering how was you able to reach out to them and get in contact with them. I did my part as trying to reaching out to them. I like when you connect to different people around the world that shows we are connecting to culture around the world.
Wow! I'm happy that you were able to contact someone. Their monthly wages are really low. I would only be able to pay a portion of my power bill with those wages. It is so sad to hear about how other people live in poverty. We talk about people in poverty in other countries, but it is a big problem in this country too.
ReplyDeleteSherry,
ReplyDeleteIts gereat that you were able to contact some one please please please give us some advice on how to contact some one. I would really love to connect with some one in a differnt country professionally. It saddens me that childhood poverty affects so many countries :( And their wages are really low as well.
Hi Sherry,
ReplyDeleteJunior sounds like an excellent person to correspond with considering he is a teacher and understands the importance of children having the proper necessities in order to function in school. Since poverty seems to hit the children the hardest in his country, I wonder what he is doing to help with the issues. The finances are so low for a month. We must stop complaining about what we do not have and thank God we are able to function on a normal level. Yes, we have people who are suffering due to layoffs and jobs being cut, but there is work in America unlike in some of the other countries. Excellent blog.
Joyce Galloway
Wow! Junior provided you with a lot of information. I would like to know if there is only one teacher in the class with 50-60 students or if there is more, how many? I really liked your post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIn Vietnam, one teacher can be handle more than fifty students in a classroom. The Vietnamese students are taught to sit, listen, and recite memorized information. The students do not participate in the class activities and believe everything from teacher’s word is absolutely true. They are also taught that do not say any word during class unless called to bring up memorized material. Nice post!
ReplyDelete