Self-Reflection: Norms and Policies for Children’s Well-Being

In China，the children of Yi , the ethnic minorities in Daliangshan, have helped the family with farm work since they were young, and the girls also need to do embroider for their dowry. There is a widespread belief among locals that sending children to school is pointless. In particular, there are social customs of getting engaged early to collect dowry, a kind buying and selling marriages in disguise.Girls are considered to belong to other people's property in the future, and they are even more reluctant to send girls to school.

After many years of work by the government and NGO, the custom of sending children to school is now deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. If you want a good future, you should go to school.

However, the custom of getting girls engaged to receive a dowry has not changed. Educated girls can charge a higher dowry. College students can receive a dowry of more than 300,000 yuan. Therefore, after some girls get engaged, their rich husband's family is willing to sponsor their studies, which is regarded as an investment.

Sending child to education is good for child‘s development and well-being,but the unequal between boy and girl as well as girls being treating as property to be bought and sold in their marriage, are harmful to the well-being of child.

The government's 9-year compulsory education is conducive to the well-being of children, but this policy has not changed the social norms of early engagement to cllect dowry of Yi girls. This social norms do not violate government policies.

 What norms exist around caring for children in your context? Which of these are supportive of children’s wellbeing and which are harmful to children?

What policies exist to promote children’s well-being? Do the social norms you mentioned align with government policies? 

Self-Reflection: Obstacles to and Enablers of Constructive Engagement

 Question: What are the obstacles to and enablers of constructive engagement by communities to protect children during humanitarian crises? 

The community, including the school, is the important social environment in which children grow up and develop all kinds relationships with people such as friends, neighbors and teachers and so on.

I recognize that even in humanitarian crises, communities themselves still have  resources that help support and protect children. There are various ways and means to engage with communities and empower communities to enable their own agency decision-making and resilience. 

There are two main approaches to constructively engaging with the community: a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach, depending on the current state of the community and the severity and length of the crisis.

When my organization carried out projects for children of migrant workers in the community, we cooperated with schools, gained the trust of parents, and successfully started the work. Subsequently, we designed extracurricular activities based on the needs of parents and the school schedule, making these activities popular with parents.Later, through the summer hosting activities, we coordinated parents to help each other solve meal problems. Parents start to get involved in event management. Finally, we launched the Parent Management Committee and realized the Parent Management Project.

Event space issues limit institutional growth. The government-led community is unwilling to provide the necessary space for activities. In other words, our activities are bottom-up, and the community has not received instructions from the superiors, nor is it willing to intervene to support our community activities. This is our biggest barrier to entering the community.

The government tightly controls social activity and is reluctant to see spontaneous, self-managed institutional activity. Instead, it tries to place these activities within its management system. This to some extent destroyed the efforts in the community

Self-Reflection: Obstacles to and Enablers of Constructive Engagement

Self-Reflection: Obstacles and Enablers to Engaging Families

What are obstacles to constructively engaging families in responding to crises? 

In China's urban communities, children from poor families may encounter discrimination in schools and communities, and the whole family is excluded in the community.  Families  conceal their financial status to avoid being targets of ridicule and discrimination,  which  discourages them from participating in activities that identify them.

Among urban immigrant groups in similar situations, their perspectives and cognitive abilities are also different. For example, in traditional Chinese society, families who hold the idea that "a filial son is born under the stick" may think beating children is a way of education, and do not realize the harm of domestic violence. so they do not trust or resist related activities.

What are enablers of constructive engagement of families in crises? 

If parents feel that participating in the parenting activities organized by teachers and schools, will improve the image of their children and families in the eyes of school teachers, they will be willing to participate.

Parents are also very willing to participate in some parent-child activities that can showcase their talents. And become the managers of on-site activities, not just recipients, which can increase the enthusiasm of family participation.

What is family?

 A family is more than a house, and more than a simple identity of father, mother, and children. The family is a place, and even more so are the relationships within the place.

The family is the place where children grow up and provides various material foundations for their growth. The family is the child's initial living environment, and the emotional interaction between parents and children determines the child's initial social and cultural cognition, interpersonal relationship and emotional response mode.

Nurturing familial relations are protective as they can foster children’s resilience, buffering against the negative effects of adverse experiences. The loving and caring interactions a child has with its caregivers is one of the most powerful engines of resilience.

The family is also the source of risk factors for children's growth. In addition to violence against children in family settings, poor parent-child interaction is a trauma that requires children to heal throughout their lives.

In the environment where I grew up, my mother was mainly responsible for taking care of the family members. She did not go to work, and my father was responsible for earning money to support the family. When I was young, my mother took care of the family's food, drink, clothing and other living needs, as well as basic education, and my father was responsible for playing with the children. Dad took me to work out and do some boys' games, I have a boyish personality.  

The small family I live in belongs to a big family. As the wife of the eldest son in the family, my mother is also responsible for maintaining the relationship of the whole family and taking care of the elders. Mom has a gentle personality and never argues with others. Everyone loves her very much. I was born in a traditional Chinese family.

Self-Reflection： Think now about the context in which you live and work. what is a family in your context? what kinds of family arrangements are typically found in your surrounding and who belongs to each

Self-Reflection: Childhood, Children's protection and Child Agency in my Context.

I am from China, I used to be a teacher for 30 years, and I am also a child protection practitioner for 10 years. As a teacher, I serve children from wealthy urban families and as a child protection practitioner, I support children from  impoverished immigrant families in cities and help minority children in poor remote mountainous areas. What "childhood" and "children‘s decision-making" can vary widely among these groups, but there are some commonalities.

The child is seen as a nuclear individual within the Chinese family thanks to the one-child policy.  The child is viewed like a property of the family, especially in minority areas. for poor families children are expected to contribute to the household income from a relatively young age and might take on all kinds of work, including child labor and exploitation, to fulfill this role. however, the nature, location, and duration of their work is going to change from one context to another. children in Tibetan areas need to dig Cordyceps, a natural medicinal material, and girls in Yi ethnic areas always do embroidery for their own dowry.The girl's dowry will also bring an income to the family, and it is also the source of income for many families to marry a daughter-in-law. Because of the traditional custom of filial piety, after Chinese children grow up, they will still maintain close ties with their original families, including mutual financial support. Wealthy families raise their children as a tool to move up the social class and realize their dreams.

We don't have much voice to say anything about other people's children, and we can't interfere with family children's education. 

• Self-Reflection: Situating Children's Roles in Cultural Contexts
  

Self-Reflection: Aspects of the Science of Childhood Adversity and Resilience

That resilience is built through relationships and that severe neglect appears to be at least as great a threat to the health and overall development of children as experiencing physical abuse are new to me, as well as the point that trauma can be passed on to offspring through changes in DNA expression.

I am very interested in related social psychology content and now I am reading the book Social Psychology by David G. Myers which is very helpful for the course I'm currently taking. For example, the discussion on self-efficacy in the second part of the book chapter complements how self-efficacy is one of the protective factors that play a role in children's development and strengthen my understanding that resilience is built through relationships.

The science of child development, child adversity and resilience define Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and guide child protection design and practices.  The science helps us appreciate the power of protective and promotive factors account for child's development, know what risk factors constitutes child adversity impact child's development at different phases , and understand the sequence of development is basically the same for children all over the world and the child‘s grow is the outcomes by complicated interaction between genes and the social and physical environment, which suggests that strong child protection programming should seek to simultaneously decrease risks to children and increase factors that are protective and promotive of their wellbeing. This means, effective humanitarian child protection programming should prevent risks to children in the first place but not just in the rush to response. We need to do both preventative work and response to immediate needs.

The Socio-Ecological Model and Ecobiodevelopmental (EBD) framework identify where to start and what should be done to prevent risks to children and how to build children's resilience to better cope with negative experiences they may encounter. Research in these fields strengthens the operability of child protection projects.

I am impressed about the Ecobiodevelopmental framework for early childhood policies and programs and Timing of the experiences or exposures to adversity matter to child development, which define quality response and set a common measurement and a yardstick. For example, for me, to find different promotive and protective factors in the environment in which children live and prioritize the protection work, targeting different ages and developmental stages of children. 

The context part, I think still needs to be discussed more.The culture and customs about children in some countries and regions are detrimental to the welfare of children. How do we deal with such context?

• Self-Reflection: Aspects of the Science of Childhood Adversity and Resilience 

Self-Reflection: Childhood Experiences

The experience:

* What happened that made you feel stressed, anxious or insecure?

I especially freak out when I describe how I feel, or say important things that others ignore，especially when someone misunderstood what I said.

*How did you respond to the experience?

I lose the temper.

*How old were you at the time?

in the middle school and high school

 Resolution to the experience:

* What made you feel better or safe again after the experience?

To talk to a friend who understand me.

*Who, if anyone, did you receive help and support from? What did they do?

My friends. They listened to me and show the understanding.

*What specific capacities and skills help you cope with the experience?

I made friends. I can find the right person to talk to.

• What elements of the science do you see reflected?
• Which elements are missing or could be strengthened in child protection practice?