How Can You Help Others in Need

This was a lot of information to take in from World Forum Foundation, and National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies. I wanted to share both because it’s good to have world information and home trends, and issues information about poverty. I’ve learned poverty is everywhere, and some places are worst then others. People all around the world are willing to help others in need, and that where we all should be willing to support the cause of anyone in need. How do you feel about helping those who are in poverty?

 

Improving Health and Nutrition of Under-Threes

Window of Opportunity for Enriched Childhood

by Joseph M. Hunt

THEMES

1.    Health and Nutrition for mother and infant should be priorities for all developing countries but rarely are.

2.    Empowered women raise tall, bright, healthy children. Women’s rights and children’s rights are interwoven and non- negotiable.

3.    Investing in early childhood is the investment bargain of the decade.

4.    Community- based programs that integrate food, health and psychosocial care are the most successful.

5.    Lifelong learning and earning are the outcome.

6.    Human and Economic Development are two sides of the same coin.

7.    Child Development IS Sustainable Development.

Malnourished children are the scars of global poverty global poverty

·  150 million underweight

·  177 million stunted

·  Nearly 3 billion people suffer from iodine, iron and vitamin A deficiencies

* Most are poor children and their mothers

·  11 million children under five die each year

·  Poor Health and Nutrition is the Main Cause

·  Malnourished Survivors bear the brunt

o poor cognitive and learning skills

o low achievement in school

o low wages

o low investment in Quality of their Children

o disability (mental and physical)

o shortened life

o life- long susceptibility to illness (double risk of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes

Asia is the “Big Show” for Improving Children’s Prospects

·  Three- quarters of the underweight, stunted and micronutrient deficient people live in Asia, the majority children

o 72 million children born yearly

o 26 million (36%) underweight

o 6 million die before age 5

o malnutrition underlies 3 million deaths

·  Half of young women and preschoolers are anemic

o 65,000 maternal deaths each year

o school dropouts

·  30 million kids (ages 6 -11) not enrolled in school

·  150 million (ages 5- 14) working, half full- time

·  1 billion people (400m children) need iodized salt to avoid iodine deficiency, which robs children of 13 IQ points

Turning the Spiral of Malnutrition dull Minds and Poverty…..
To a Virtuous Cycle of Learning and Earning! The Key is Enriching Early Childhood

International Development Goals by 2015

1.    Eliminating most of infant, child, and maternal deaths.

2.    Reduction of extreme poverty by half.

3.    Universal primary school enrolment

Improved maternal and child nutrition is essential to accomplish these goals. Why?

·  One fifth of maternal deaths (65,000 in low- income Asia each year) are caused by iron deficiency anemia

·  54% of under- five child deaths in Asia (2.8 million each year) are caused by moderate and severe underweight condition.

·  Low birth weight infants (from short, undernourished mothers) are ten times more likely to die in their first year than normal birth weights.

·  Stunted children enter school later and are more likely to drop out

·  Malnutrition reinforces poverty, low mental competence, achievement, and earnings, and depresses economic growth by at least 5% of GDP.

The “Education for All” Evaluation (1990 — 2000)
Universal Primary School Enrollment could not be reached because of preschoolers’ poor “readiness for learning.”
Primary dropout and retention rates have not improved enough.
Poor nutrition dulls learning capacity.

The Life-Cycle Perspective

·  There is new evidence on importance of:

·  Nutrition of girls Fetal development Nutrition of next generation of girls

o Fetal development Adult chronic disease (a linking of the two burdens)

·  This gives us an expanded view of:

o Productivity impacts of improved nutrition

o Opportunities for action

 

World Forum Foundation. "A foundation whose mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings." http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php

 

 

 

 

 

TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY

FAMILIES AND CHILDREN IN POVERTY

BACKGROUND

 

In 1996, Congress created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to provide

states with funds to assist families earning low incomes and their children through a variety of services

or activities, including monthly cash aid payments and child care assistance. TANF replaced the Aid

to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which had provided cash welfare to families

earning low incomes, and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program, which provided these

families with job training and job search help. While caseloads under TANF have dropped by 60

percent since 1996, only about 40 percent of income-eligible families receive TANF. About 80 percent

of eligible families benefited from TANF’s predecessor, AFDC.1

Nearly 60 percent of the TANF caseload decline reflects fewer eligible families receiving assistance, not

a decline in families who are eligible for TANF. TANF does not lift families out of poverty. In 2008,

with the exception of Alaska, all states set benefit levels for TANF at less than half the federal poverty

line (and about 20 states had benefits below 25 percent of the poverty line). Even when combining

TANF and food stamps (renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), all but

three states (Alaska, Hawaii and California) have benefits below 75 percent of the poverty line.2

 

2012 Federal Poverty Guidelines3

People in

Family

Poverty

Line Alaska Hawaii

1 $11,170 $13,970 $12,860

2 $15,130 $18,920 $17,410

3 $19,090 $23,870 $21,960

4 $23,050 $28,820 $26,510

5 $27,010 $33,770 $31,060

6 $30,970 $38,720 $35,610

7 $34,930 $43,670 $40,160

8 $38,890 $48,620 $44,710

Note: For families with more people in the 48 contiguous states, add $3,960 for each additional person. For

families in Alaska, add $4,950 for each additional person. For families in Hawaii, add $4,550 for each

additional person.

Families with young children continue to disproportionately experience poverty.

• About one-quarter (24.5 percent) of all children younger than age 5 lived in poverty in 2009.

1 US Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (2008). Indicators of Welfare Dependence:

Annual Report to Congress 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from, http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators08/index.shtml#hardcopy.

2 Center on Budget & Policy Priorities.(2008). TANF Benefits Are Low and Have Not Kept Pace with Inflation. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from

http://www.cbpp.org/11-24-08tanf.pdf.

3 US Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (2011). Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 13,

January 20, 2011, pp. 3637-3638 Retrieved February 13, 2012. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml

160

 

The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies 2012

2009 Poverty Rate and Number of People Living in Poverty4

Age Group 2009 People in Poverty 2009 Percentage of People

Under 5 years 5.2 million 24.5 %

5-17 years 10.2 million 19.2 %

Under 18 years 15.5 million 20.7 %

18-64 years 24.7 million 12.9 %

Over 65 years 3.4 million 8.9%

 

US Total 43.6 million 14.3 %

• For African American children under age 5, 41.7 percent were living in poverty -- three out of

every five (60.2 percent) African American children under age 5 living with their mother alone

were living in poverty.5

• For Hispanic children under age 5, 34.5 percent were living in poverty – more than half of

Hispanic children under age 5 (56.1 percent) living with their mother alone were living in

poverty.6

 

Single-parent households are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

• For children under age 6 in households headed by a single mother, more than half (54.3 percent)

lived in poverty in 2009 – four times the rate of children in married couple families (13.4

percent).7

• About 90 percent of adult TANF recipients are women, and 40 percent of TANF recipient

children are younger than age 6.8

Source: United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012). THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -

- JANUARY 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2012 from, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf.

4 US Census Bureau. (2010). Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement, 2009 Poverty Table of Contents. Retrieved

February 25, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032010/pov/toc.htm.

5 Ibid

6 Ibid

7 Ibid

8 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. (June 2009).

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Eighth Annual Report to Congress. Retrieved February 13, 2012 from,

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/data-reports/annualreport8/ar8index.htm

National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies
http://www.naccrra.org/
(Newsletter: http://capwiz.com/naccrra/mlm/signup/ )