SHARING WEB RESOURCES

Children's Defense Fund
http://www.childrensdefense.org/index-1.html

Every 33 seconds in America a baby is born into poverty.
Every 18 minutes a baby dies before his 1st birthday.
Every 6 hours a child is killed by abuse or neglect.

Do these statistics alarm you? When I first saw them, I had to read them again to make sure that I read them correctly. As a member of a United Methodist Church, one of the ministries that I work with is the United Methodist Women Organization. Each year as a part of our campaign for children we participate in Children's Sabbath which is celebrated in October. This is how I became aware of the Children's Defense Fund. Through this organization my church orders material to distribute to our congregation about the plight of children around the world. Using that material we develop our mission project for the next year. This year we are working on a mission project for the children and families in Haiti.

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that begin in 1973 under the leadership of Ms. Marian Wright Edelman, a Civil Rights Leader. Its purpose is to ensure that children are taken out of poverty; protected from abuse and neglect; and ensured access to healh care and quality education with a moral and spiritual foundation. They are supported by foundation and coporate grants and individual donations. Ms. Marian Wright Edelman believes that we need to have a child movement because children SHOULD BE our number one priority in the world today. She believes that children should be empowered with good health and a high quality education. They need to feel confident and loved. They are our leaders of tomorrow.

Two of the many programs/campaigns that the CDF sponsors include the CDF Freedom Schools program and the Cradle to Prison Pipeline campaign. The Freedom Schools program focuses on providing summer and after school enrichment programs for literature to get children excited about reading while building their self esteem. The Cradle to Prison Pipeline campaign is designed to reduce the number of detention and incarceration of teens by increasing preventive supports and services to children in need. These programs caught my attention because I am a firm believer in being proactive. We must put measures into place that gives children positive consequences/alternatives before something happens. The Children's Defense Fund also adovocates full day kindergarten, home visiting with early childhood families, as well as impoving the quality rating of early childhood facilities.

Reference:

Children's Defense Fund. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org