Arnold Schwarzenegger Fathered Child with Household Staff Reports LA Times - Schwarzenegger and Shriver, who have been married for 25 years, announced they were separating

LA Times: Schwarzenegger Fathered Child with Household Staff VOA News May 17, 2011 A Los Angeles newspaper says the wife of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger left him after she learned he fathered a child with a member of their household staff. The Los Angeles Times quotes Schwarzenegger as saying he told his wife, Maria Shriver, the news after he left office earlier this year.  The newspaper says the birth occurred more than a decade ago. The newspaper says the staff member worked for the family for two decades and retired in January. Last week, Schwarzenegger and Shriver, who have been married for 25 years, announced they were separating at a "time of great personal and professional transition."

International Primary Curriculum (IPC) - Innovative Approach Individualizes Learning

Innovative Approach Individualizes Learning
Curriculum personalizes education and applies an internationally-minded approach to learning

Faiza Elmasry | Washington, D.C. February 28, 2011 - VOA

One size does not fit all. That's the philosophy behind an innovative approach to primary education which started in Britian less than a decade ago.

The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) is now taught in more than 1,000 primary schools in 58 countries, including the United States. The curriculum personalizes education and applies an internationally-minded approach to learning.

Alison Kerr is a second grade teacher in the British American School of Los Angeles, one of a few American private schools that teaches the International Primary Curriculum. She says the main goal of the curriculum is to engage children in the learning process. This term, for example, her class is learning about historical figures.

"I got the children to come in secret and dress up with several clues of a famous person. They had to research and bring us 10 written clues and the rest of the class had to guess who these significant people were," says Kerr. "So the children do not simply do the same thing, the same work, sheet type of format every single time."

Educator Martin Skelton, who co-authored the IPC eight years ago, says kids need a program that allows them to learn individually.

"Our view is the teachers should be thinking about their kid in their class and why they are not learning and trying to work out what they are going to be doing tomorrow to help individual kids learn much better," says Skelton, who adds that another important goal is preparing today’s children to become 21st century leaders. "Most of world problems are going to be solved internationally now. I mean no single country is going to solve the environment or terrorism. It’s a multi co-operational activity."

To make that possible, he says, the curriculum focuses on developing inquiring minds and personal qualities so children become good citizens of the world.

"We have very specific activities built in the curriculum around the development of international mindedness right from the age five onwards. We encourage the kids to mingle with schools in other countries and then of course things like skype now make that fantastically easy to do."

The British School in Boston hosted a fair called Around the World in a Day. Parents and students representing 51 nationalities participated. Emma Northey, head of Primary Learning at the school, describes one activity designed to teach kids about similarities among different cultures.

"The children were each given a passport. They basically knew that they were going around the world in a day and we said to them, ‘You have to come back with two similarities that you had seen between the different cultures. Even the three year olds came back to me saying, ‘Gosh, you know everybody writes. Some people write going down. Some people write from left to right, some from right to left.’"

Kate Foy of the British School in Washington D.C. says the children have to live the learning experience and deliver their findings in the form they prefer, whether as an oral presentation, an art form, or in writing. The teacher’s role has also changed.

"Teacher’s role is to facilitate the learning in their classroom, to enable those students to discover for themselves. And you kind of have to sit back a little bit," says Foy. "You have to make sure you’re asking the right questions. You maneuver yourself around the classroom and enable the children to learn as opposed to telling them and kind of spoon feeding them. No question there is no room for spoon feeding when it comes to the IPC."

IPC co-author Skelton says the feedback so far is encouraging. Students and teachers say the curriculum makes the classroom a more exciting place to be.




Innovative Approach Individualizes Learning

Article from VOA

Kids Cafe - After-school program feeds the hungry while exposing kids to healthy foods

Kids Cafe Fights Childhood Hunger

After-school program feeds the hungry while exposing children to healthy foods

Deborah Block | Arlington, Virginia February 28, 2011 - VOA

Photo: VOA

Students in the Kids Cafe after-school program learn about the nutritious value of an avocado while making an avocado and bean dip.

In the United States, many low income parents cannot afford to buy enough food for their children. A program called Kids Café is helping some of these children by providing free nutritious snacks and meals during after-school programs.

At a community center in Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C., children make an avocado and bean dip as part of their after-school program. Many of them have never seen an avocado.

"It’s very healthy for your body, but the main thing is that it tastes really, really good," Keith Clements tells them. He's with Arlington Parks and Recreation, which runs the after-school program.

The children are between the ages of five and 11 and are from several local schools. About half have parents who are from Ethiopia. Many of the children eat traditional Ethiopian food at home. Kids Café, with food donated by a food bank, gives them an opportunity to try different types of food.

"It's good," says one girl.

Rebecca Nance, whose parents are from the United States, is not so sure. "The taste is weird."

Her mother, Daffany Nance has two children in the program. She's glad her kids are getting nutritious food.

"Even in my house we don’t have much junk food," says Nance, "so it’s very important that it’s healthy and continues to help them grow and be nourished in the proper manner."

The charity, Feeding America, launched the national Kids Café program in 1993. The organization says more than 16 million children in the United States live in households where there is not enough food to eat.

Kids Café became part of the after school program at this community center five years ago.  Lori McFail heads the after-school program. She says some children do not eat well-balanced evening meals because their parents work late or cannot afford healthy food.

"Some of them have reported that they don’t get enough food," says McFail.

The children are encouraged to share what they've learned with their families.

Clements says recipes, like this avocado dip, are easy to make. "It’s a very kid friendly recipe because anyone can do it. You really don’t need any special utensils."

The children are taught about the nutritional value of foods. 

"It doesn’t give you any fat or sugar in it," says one girl.

They also learn which foods are good for them.

"You should always eat vegetables and fruits every day to give you muscles," says a boy named Matthew.

McFail hopes the children will apply what they've learned about nutrition throughout their lives. "I love the fact that I can come here, and know that they’ve eaten, and they're full and they're happy."

 

 

Kids Cafe Fights Childhood Hunger

After-school program article and video from VOA

Stroke Increases Among Youth in USA

Stroke Increases Among US Youth

Jessica Berman | Washington, D.C. February 11, 2011 - VOA

 

In the 5-to-14 year old age group, stroke jumped 36 percent in girls and 31 percent in boys.

The number of young people in the United States hospitalized due to stroke has jumped by 50 percent since the mid-1990s, even as the number of older Americans suffering from stroke has declined.

Each year, nearly 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke. While three-quarters of these individuals are elderly, the disease can and does occur in younger adults, and even children.

According to a new national study which compared the number of stroke hospitalizations in 1994 and 1995 with those in 2006 and 2007, the number of people aged five to 44 who suffered acute ischemic stroke rose by 50 percent.

Ischemic stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a blood clot or fatty deposit. The lack of oxygen caused by the blockage destroys brain tissue and can lead to paralysis or death.

The study was based on a sample of 10,000 hospitalizations nationwide.

In the 5-to-14 year-old age group, researchers discovered a 31 percent increase in stroke admissions among boys, from 2.8 to 3.8 hospitalizations per 10,000, and a 36 percent jump in hospitalizations, from 3.6 to 4.7, among girls.

Public health experts believe increased obesity in children and young adults might account for some of the rise in these stroke-related hospitalizations. But Mary George of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, which conducted the study, says the apparent rise in ischemic stroke among young Americans needs further investigation.

"Whether this is perhaps related to changes in patient factors, in risk factors, or whether it’s related to changes in hospital admitting practices over time," she says. "Whether it’s related to improved diagnostic ability over time and heightened awareness. There’s a variety of reasons that might lead to this."

Researchers found the biggest increase in hospitalizations for stroke, 53 percent, was among males aged 15 to 34.
But George says that among the two oldest age groups, men and women aged 45 to 64 and those over the age of 65, there was a marked decrease in the number of hospitalizations due to ischemic stroke.

"It’s possible that it could be improved through increased prevention, heightened awareness to the need to institute preventive lifestyle changes and preventive medications in the elderly, where we know this is a high-risk population. But again, this study really can’t speculate on that."

The results of the stroke study were announced at the American Heart Association’s annual Stroke Conference in California.

Stroke Increases Among US Youth
Article from VOA

Bono - Trying to Save The Lives of Millions of Children

Tools Available to Raise Healthy Children, say Advocates

Lisa Schlein | Geneva January 28, 2011 - VOA

 

Irish musician Bono speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 28, 2011

Child health advocates attending the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland say more can and must be done to save the lives of millions of children in developing countries that die from preventable diseases each year.   The advocates participated in a special panel at the Forum on Raising Healthy Children.

Children in developing countries are exposed to many health risks.  The World Food Program reports nearly 50 million children a year face malnutrition and hunger.  It says 200 million children are stunted, which robs them of the chance to lead a normal life.

WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran says children under two who are deprived of adequate nutrition never recover from that loss.  She says without specific interventions, children lose a chance at a healthy life.

"And this is not only an issue of compassion, but also one for finance ministers and presidents and prime ministers," said Sheeran. "The loss to GDP has been estimated by my program-but by others at 6 to 11 percent of GDP that a country loses if children are unhealthy and bring that into adulthood.  And, we know from one economy alone that equals over $20 billion a year.”

Sheeran says countries now have to tackle the double problem of undernourishment and obesity, which can lead to early onset of diabetes in children.  But, she adds the news is not all grim.  Progress is being made and more can be made.

The Head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, agrees and is upbeat about the advances in child health.  She says under-five mortality has gone down to 8.1 million, the lowest in 60 years.

She says vaccines against preventable diseases, such as measles and polio are saving millions of lives.   And, she notes new vaccines are coming onto the market to protect children against diarrhea and pneumonia.

Dr. Chan says insecticide treated bed nets have cut child deaths from malaria by half in Africa.

Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, says one of the best ways of bringing down child deaths is by investing in women.

“We know that mothers make an incredible difference in the lives of their newborn babies and in their children," she said. "We know that woman, if you invest and gets an extra dollar or two in income, she plows it right back into her family in terms of health and nutrition and education.  So, the women are key in this.”

Lead singer of U2 and Co-Founder of ONE Campaign and RED Campaign, Bono, says money can accomplish a lot, if used in the right way.  Since 2004, he says 6,000 children’s lives are being saved every day.  This is being done with the use of government aid and public participation.

“I think you have to show the results to keep the public involved, but the public does have to keep the feet to the flames of their officials," said Bono.

The panel discussion ended with the surprise visit of Bill Gates and British Prime Minister, David Cameron.  Both men listed polio eradication as one of their top priorities.

To show their seriousness, Gates said his foundation would contribute $100 million to the global polio eradication campaign.  The British prime minister said his government would double its commitment with a $60-million donation.

Tools Available to Raise Healthy Children, say Advocates
Article from VOA

Child's Self Control May Predict Future Health, Success

Child's Self Control Predicts Future Health, Success

Can lead to poor health, money troubles and crime

Art Chimes | St. Louis, Missouri January 28, 2011 - VOA

 

A study that followed children into adulthood found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with.

From a very early age, some children exhibit better self-control than others. Now, a new study has tracked how low self control can predict poor health, money troubles and even a criminal record in their adult years.
The study began with 1,000 children in New Zealand. Researchers followed them for decades. They observed the level of self-control the youngsters displayed. Parents, teachers, even the kids themselves, scored the youngsters on measures like "acting before thinking" and "persistence in reaching goals."

The children of the study are now adults in their thirties. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with.

"The children who had the lowest self-control when they were age three to 10, early years, later on had the most health problems in their thirties," Moffitt said, "and they had the worst financial situation. They were more likely to have a criminal record and to be raising a child as a single parent on a very low income."

Moffitt explained that self-control problems were widely observed, and weren’t just a feature of a small group of misbehaving kids.

"Even the children who had above-average self-control as pre-schoolers, could have benefited from more self-control training. They could have improved their financial situation and their physical and mental health situation 30 years later."

So, children with minor self-control problems were likely as adults to have minor health problems, and so on.

Moffitt said it’s still unclear why some children have better self-control than others, though other researchers have found that it's mostly a learned behavior, with relatively little genetic influence. But good self-control can run in families because children with good self-control are more likely to grow up to be healthy and prosperous parents.

"Whereas some of the low-self-control study members are more likely to be single parents with a very low income and the parent is in poor health and likely to be a heavy substance abuser," said Moffitt. "So that's not a good atmosphere for a child. So it looks as though self-control is something that in one generation can disadvantage the next generation."

But the good news, according to Moffitt, is that self-control can be taught by parents, and through school curricula that have been shown to be effective.

Child's Self Control Predicts Future Health, Success
Can lead to poor health, money troubles and crime - article VOA

Children's Christmas Letters Pile Up

Postal Workers Play Santa as Children's Letters Pile Up

Operation Santa works to deliver gifts to the needy this holiday season

Adam Phillips | New York City - December 2010

Photo: VOA - A. Phillips

Some of the 22 postal "elves" who volunteer to organize letters to Santa and arrange for the public or charities to "adopt" them.

About two million letters addressed to Santa Claus that have been received by the main post office in New York City this Christmas season. For the past 70 years, postal workers around the country have read those letters hoping to make those wishes come true. It's part of an annual effort called, Operation Santa.

"We open them, we process them, and we make them available for the public to read," says Pete Fontana, who oversees the 22 postal  "elves" who volunteer to organize the letters and arrange for the public or charities to "adopt" them. "Some of them are funny, some of them are sad. We've had a number of people walk out of here crying this year because the letters are so needy with people like a single mom with three kids just lost her job and they are being evicted."

VOA - A. Phillips

Pete Fontana, who oversees Operation Santa, amid the stacks of children's letters addressed to Santa Claus.

Although Fontana has seen a rise in the number of such letters due to the troubled economy, he says many 'Dear Santa' letters do come from relatively well-off children. One boy sent a computer printed wish list containing 500 items.

Most of the children ask for things their parents can't afford, or the things they see other kids have.  That includes electronics like game systems, digital cameras and laptop  computers. Others just ask for the basics.


"Or sometimes they'll ask for a jacket for their mothers because their mother doesn't have winter clothes or they don't have sheets for the bed or they are all sleeping on the floor. They even ask for a bed. It's just amazing the things that they ask for."

VOA

A sample of one of the two million letters to Santa received by the main post office in New York.

Fontana recalls the letter from a severely disabled child who asked Santa for a high tech wheelchair that cost nearly $20,000.  "The family didn't have health insurance. So the boy sent us a picture of it, and they put it in the one of the local papers. The next day we had somebody sponsoring the child to get his wheelchair. It felt great."

For postal elf, Antoinette, working with Operation Santa to help kids is a highlight of her year. She imagines the children's joy when  postal workers come to the door with the "Santa gifts" they've requested. In the next room, another Operation Santa elf hands out photocopied Santa letters to ordinary New Yorkers like Paul.

"I am here to hopefully make one little kid's Christmas a little bit brighter," he says. "They gave me 10 letters to read and hopefully one of them [will contain a request for] …something I can afford."  

VOA - A. Phillips

Substitute Santa Erica sifts through letters before deciding which child she will buy for.

A young woman named Erica is moved by all the requests for toys, but is more interested in helping out with practical gifts, such as socks, sweaters, jackets and other winter clothes needed to battle the harsh New York winter weather

"Toys are definitely beneficial as well but I think the necessities are definitely more important at this time," says Erica, who hopes to make kids happy. "They can't control circumstances, the parents lose their jobs or the parents can't afford to get them a gift, and if I have the means to help, I definitely will." 

Of the millions of requests Operation Santa receives every year, only 15 percent are now answered with an actual gift, but the U.S. Postal Service has written a letter to Santa asking him to make that number even higher  during next year's holiday season.  

Postal Workers Play Santa as Children's Letters Pile Up article came from voanews.com

Holiday Party For Young People Who Have No Place To Call Home

Bringing Christmas Cheer to Homeless Children

New Orleans man organizes a holiday party for young people who have no place to call home

Faiza Elmasry | Washington, D.C. - December 2010

Christmas is a festive time, especially for children. Families gather to celebrate the holidays with delicious meals and wrapped gifts. But for children whose families have no home of their own, Christmas can be a sad time.

To put a smile on homeless children's faces at this time of year, one man in New Orleans, Louisiana, organizes a Christmas party for what he calls the "Forgotten Angels."

Getting started

When Clarence Adams applied to be a counselor at a New Orleans homeless shelter 16 years ago, he knew very little about homelessness.

"After the interview, they gave me a tour in the building and it was lunch time," Adams says. "And I saw children there. That really bothered me. I just never thought about a child being homeless."

Adams got the job and took it upon himself to help the kids coming to the shelter in any way he could. He went with their parents to register them for school and organized donation drives for school supplies. One day as the holidays neared, he talked to a friend about what it might be like for homeless children to celebrate Christmas.

"Basically the only thing that these kids had to look forward to was having their Christmas dinner in the shelter with hundreds of people who they didn't know," he says. "I mentioned to my friend that if I ever got rich, I would just have a big party for homeless children. She said, 'Well, let's do it.'"

That's how the Christmas for Forgotten Angels party started 12 years ago.

Christmas for Forgotten Angels

"The first year we had approximately 50 children. And I had my food service manager from the shelter cook the meal," Adams says. "We had fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. We had some desserts and we were able to give all the kids toys and we had Santa Claus."

But organizing that party all alone, he says, was overwhelming.

"I swore I would not do that again because it was too much work," he says. "But at the party, seeing the faces on these kids, having them come up and give me a hug and say, 'Thank you,' to see how much joy this brought to these children who would otherwise have nothing. I determined at the end I had to do this every year."

Reports about his Christmas party now appear in local newspapers every year. That's resulted in having dozens of volunteers contact Adams to donate their time as well as clothing, toys and food. This year, however, a weak economy has impacted the party.

"I do see the donations this year down somewhat from last year but people are still very generous," Adams says. "We had a group of volunteers that came for like three years in a row from Georgia. I know that last year, we got checks from four different states. I had a family that brought some toys last week. Their 7-year-old son had a $20 bill that he had saved up money from his allowance all year so he could help."

Helping out

Volunteers who can't afford to donate money come and help wrap the gifts and prepare for the party. Tiffani Hicks, a 29-year-old single mother, helped out for the first time this year.

"It's a very family atmosphere," she says. "We have other volunteers that are helping. We're all sitting around, talking. It's a very warm, loving atmosphere."

Doing something to make homeless children happy is important to Hicks. She says she knows exactly how they feel at Christmastime, because she was homeless as a child herself.

"I felt like I wasn't loved. I felt like I didn't deserve it," Hicks says. "I just felt like nobody cared about me. My Mom died when I was five years old and my aunt, she took care of us. She did what she could do for us. So we never really had a Christmas or whatever like that. It just makes you feel awful. Then after the holidays you have to go back to school and everyone is talking about what they got for Christmas, so you're kind of making up things that you wish you would have gotten, so you can fit in."

With dozens of volunteers like Tiffani Hicks, Clarence Adams says they were able to serve more than 200 homeless kids this year. The Christmas for Forgotten Angels organizer says he'd like to see his community's support and commitment to making homeless children feel special continue all year round and not just during the holidays.

Bringing Christmas Cheer to Homeless Children article came from voanews.com