In honor of International Day of Families (IDF) May 15th, we are happy to announce upcoming release of Where the Heart Listens: a handbook for parents and their allies (third edition) in audio and ebook formats. You can read sample chapters here under ‘Where the Heart Listens’ in English, Spanish and Chinese. Chapter One in French will be posted very soon!
Thursday May 12 I attended the United Nations IDF observance in New York and there was excellent turnout for the panel. Attendees included Amr Ghaleb, former UN Family Programme head, a good friend of many years. Read the Secretary-General’s statement for the day: http://j.mp/mLI2DP.
This year’s IDF topic ‘Confronting Family Poverty and Social Exclusion’ was addressed by the ambassador from Mexico to the UN Mr. Claude Heller, associate director of UNICEF for policy and practice Ms. Isabel Ortiz, OECD senior economist Mr. Willem Adema (parent of three sons, as am I!) and ATD ‘Aide a Toute Detresse’ Fourth World representative Ms. Cristina Diez. It was, in sum, a provocative and informative panel.
Most hopeful in my view was Ms. Ortiz saying that we can – and must – make a change from targeted support programs to those with universal offer. That certainly is true for parenting resources. Renata Kaczmarska (kaczmarska@un.org) social affairs officer at the UN Programme on the Family promised to post the presenters’ slides.
Don’t forget: I will be on Jim Buchanan’s ‘Talk of the Town’ on WICC in Bridgeport CT, Monday May 16 just after 4pm (EST) http://www.wicc600.com discussing how parents can talk about global events, especially Osama bin Laden’s death, with their kids.