The Multicultural Child: Strategies for Nurturing Emotional Health & Resilience

A vital part of becoming an emotionally healthy, functional adult includes learning to weave various aspects of ourselves to create a cohesive identity -- a challenge, made more complex for children who straddle multiple cultural backgrounds.    This presentation focuses on ways to support parents in this journey by  identifying the existential theme of each age group; pinpointing key personality types & their associated learning styles; using journaling techniques to build positive self-image; developing reciprocal listening techniques that nurture empathy & respect differences while honing negotiation skills; using positive discipline to instill decision-making ability, self-regulation & resilience; using spontaneous play to build trust & intimacy.


SOPHIA SOLOMON left the corporate setting to work with preschoolers in 1990 and hasn’t looked back since. Growing up in East Africa, Europe and the Middle East gave her a uniquely personal multicultural perspective and oriented her to creating learning environments that honor diversity. But this orientation crystallized into a passion after her intimate 2007 exposure to a distressed 6-year old Ethiopian adoptee & his 4-year old sister. Her attempts to scaffold the adopting family during their critical transitional year also inspired her research paper on amending current gaps in support services for international adoptees. In 2010, she was invited to present her recommendations for the Migration & Young Children Speaker Series at the NGO committee on UNICEF. She currently works with an international population of mixed age (2.5-5) preschoolers and is also an adjunct lecturer (Child Development) at Hunter College CUNY. She has a B.A. in Music (piano) & Library Science (Andrews University, MI) and an MS Ed (Birth-3rd Grade) from Hunter College CUNY.

W.I.S.E. UP! for ChildrenOne of the biggest challenges for children and teens who were adopted is to respond to questions and statements about adoption that are based on misperceptions and misunderstandings. Kids need tools to choose how to handle the numerous and varied situations they will face on their own. The W.I.S.E. Up!^sm program empowers kids to handle both expected and unexpected situations. It helps them to understand that they are WISE, but others are not, thereby lowering the level of anger and frustration that can result from questions and comments. W.I.S.E. UP! is a never-forgotten, lifelong tool for anyone who joined their family through adoption.

W.I.S.E. UP! for AdultsThere are a number of parenting tasks which are unique to families formed through adoption. Perhaps the most difficult is supporting our children when they are called upon to explain adoption to the rest of the world. They are not asked whether they would like to shoulder this role. Instead, there is an assumption that they are the best source of information, and worse, that their adoption stories and love for their family should be open to investigation. There is no doubt that comments and questions occur most frequently for families where adoption is obvious.

Ellen Singer, Adoption Therapist and Parent Educator with Cynthia Cubbage, L.C.S.W from C.A.S.E. will lead the W.I.S.E. UP! workshop

Growing up in America

Meheret Endeshaw is a 2008 graduate in Psychology from Whitman College in Washington State. Her interest in heath education started at a young age. Throughout college she volunteered nationally and internationally at various organizations dedicated to improving then reproductive health of women and the lives of people living with HIV. In the summer of 2008, she went back to her homeland and launched her project, "Reducing Stigma for Ethiopian Children Orphaned to HIV/AIDS." The self-initiated project funded by 100 Projects for Peace grant focused on improving the lives of orphaned youth by providing educational books, a soccer and volleyball league and a safe place for reading and recreational activities. In the 2009/2010 school year, Meheret was a Heath Educator with City Year, an AmeriCorps program. As a member of the City Year HOPE team, Meheret worked in Washington, DC Public Schools teaching a CDC approved HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum to middle and high school students. She also served as an HIV testing coordinator intern at Metro TeenAIDS, a community health organization dedicated to supporting young people in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Meheret will be attending the University of Washington in the fall of 2010 to earn a Master of Public Health degree in Leadership, Policy and Management. Learn more about Meheret's Summer 2008

Project: http://www.davisprojectsforpeace.org/

Growing up in America

Eskinder Zewdu is a senior Electrical and Computer Engineering major at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. He hails from Durham, North Carolina and is currently an intern at Education Services International, a startup career training company in the Raleigh-Durham area. He has also worked as a Globalization Intern at the SAS Institute, a privately held software company in Cary, NC. At Duke, he has held leadership positions in the National Society of Black Engineers and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He was also helped charter the Duke Ethiopian Student Transnational Association (DESTA), the Ethiopian student organization on campus. In his downtime, he has followed his passion for music as a baritone saxophonist in the Duke University Jazz Ensemble. Upon graduation he will pursue a career in electrical engineering and/or consulting. He plans to return for either a M.B.A. or Masters in Electrical Engineering within the next four years and hopes to work abroad before then.

Hair & Skin Care Session

The Natural Hair Care for Children workshop is an instructive and informative seminar that will explain how to care for children’s natural hair.  This fun and easy workshop will take the guess work out of which products to use, braiding and twisting techniques, detangling, beading, solutions for dealing with breakage and so much more. The goal is to protect, strengthen and nurture the natural beauty of our kid’s hair so that they may be confident to wear themselves proudly

Jamesha Bazemore is a certified Natural Hair Care Consultant and Stylist that specializes in natural hair care for children.  Jamesha has been influential in educating parents of children with beautiful textured hair since 2006.  She is also the creator and owner of a line of natural hair care products called Imani~Joy Naturals that are tailored for those with nut allergies, eczema, and brittle and dry hair.   She is the creator and moderator for a facebook community page called Natural Hair Care for Children (www.Facebook.com/ChildrensHair), and she is also an active contributor for Our Natural Kids (www.OurNaturalKids.ning.com) which is a social website exclusively for caring for children’s natural hair.  She has also been featured on Nappturalite Radio and in the Examiner

LIVING ON THE FAULT LINE, WHERE RACE AND FAMILY MEET

An opportunity to think about and discuss issues surrounding transracial and transcultural parenting based on a movie called Living on the Fault Line: Where Race & Family Meet and talk about ways we can help build healthier transracial/transcultural families in 2010. Living on the Fault Line, Where Race and Family Meet is a documentary film that explores the intersection where family love meets racial injustice in the experience of transracial families created through adoption. An honest open-hearted look at race in America, it is an intimate portrait that reveals the challenges transracial families face as children of color grow up in communities where racial discrimination, stereotyping and white privilege are often unspoken and undeniable realities. Shot in a naturalistic style, Living on the Fault Line profiles nine families telling the untold story of transracial adoption, revealing the complex, challenging and emotional costs of racial discrimination brought into the privacy of the family.

BEVERLY N. CLARKE, MSW, LCSW-C, LICSW is the Director of Project Wait No Longer: Permanency for Foster Youth, a Barker initiative that seeks to find permanent homes for children currently in the public foster care system. She is responsible for the Project's overall administration, including recruitment, training, outreach and matching. Beverly has 13 years of experience as a social worker and clinician, with many of those years focusing on children and families. Beverly’s past experience includes work with the foster care system, family preservation programs as well as domestic and international adoption work. As an adoptive parent (twins from Ethiopia) herself, she brings both a personal and professional understanding of the adoption process as well as a passion for achieving permanency for at-risk children.

ETHIOPIAN ETTIQUETTE

How do your great a person politely in Ethiopia? What is the right way to address once elders? And more will be covered as we review the Ethiopian Etiquette throughout the weekend especially for the kids.

DEREJE DESTA graduated from the Addis Ababa University, in 1991, with a Bachelor's Degree in Ethiopian Language & Literature with special focus on Amharic. He has also worked as a journalist, editor and publisher for the last 18 years. He is the Executive Editor and Publisher of Zethiopia, the highly regarded, Washington, D.C. based, bilingual (Amharic and English) newspaper. The Zethiopia is the winner of BEST INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - First Place (New America Media, February 2011) on an article titled “Blogging Suicides: The Death of Foreign Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon”. Ato Dereje will also conduct the Language Classes

Travel To Ethiopia

Nothing will replace the experience of traveling to Ethiopia for the opportunity to connect our kids with their heritage and culture. We are pleased that ATO KAGNEW F. ASFAW, Regional Director USA & Canada for Ethiopian Airlines will be joining us. Ato Kagnew will be discussing travel to, as well as, within Ethiopia. He will cover topics such as where to travel, length of time for the trip, places to visit, to name a few.

Ethiopian Airlines - Gateway to Historic Ethiopia and Wild Africa one of the largest and fastest growing airlines in Africa, made its maiden flight to Cairo in 1946. With the recent service additions to Conakry, Mombassa and Monrovia, Ethiopian provides dependable services to 36 cities in Africa and to a total of 57 destinations worldwide. Currently, Ethiopian is making a huge investment to expand its fleet and broaden its network. Including the recent orders of five B777-200LR and twelve A350-900, Ethiopian has 35 new airplanes on order direct from the manufacturers which will enable the airline to operate one of the newest and environment-friendly fleet in Africa. In July 2009, Ethiopian won ‘Airline of the Year 2009’ award at African Business Award organized by the London based African Business Magazine and Common Wealth Business Council.

Ethiopian Traditional Cooking

Learn the foundation of Ethiopian traditional cooking including Difo Dabo with your follow campers, then take the recipe home with you with the essential spices for day-to-day Ethiopian cooking. Make Ethiopian food and cooking more than an occasional event.

MAHELET GETACHEW FIKRU , earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL in May 2011. Her research interests and publications are in the areas of environmental protection, migration of the educated from developing nations and finance. During her graduate studies at Southern Illinois University, Mahelet has annually participated in International and African Cultural events representing Ethiopian students. The events were highlighted by cooking Ethiopian dishes and traditional dances.