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These are the minimum core knowledge areas and competencies that caregivers should have if looking after children:

Last year, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, celebrated his fifth accession with orphans, stressing that "each year, a deserving group in our society shall be recognised." This year, he directed that every mother in the UAE is to be honoured for their role in bringing up generations and grooming leaders.

On Monday, he began by visiting the homes of two distinguished Emirati mothers. Sheikh Mohammed paid a visit to Hessa Al Jaber, an Emirati working mother in Sharjah who raised four children despite her hearing loss. He tweeted through his Twitter handle @HHShkMohd, "Hessa is a true example of the Emirati mother who represents the values of determination and strength #ThankUMother," He also visited Ousha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi, 'The Girl of Arabs', he tweeted “(Ousha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi) an Arab mother who combines both the power of faith and word. Ousha is an example of an exceptional mother, who influenced not only her children, but also all Emiratis with her wisdom.

On Wednesday, taking initiative in honouring mothers in the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed uploaded on his Facebook and Twitter account a “Certificate of Appreciation,” duly signed by him, with a message that reads "A note of gratitude and appreciation to you and to all the mothers for their significant role in building nations and generations." He asked followers on his Twitter account to print out the certificate, fill in the blank with each mother's name, and present it to the mother as a certificate of appreciation from Sheikh Mohammed.

Continuing with his heartfelt initiative, Sheikh Mohammed paid a visit to Um Abdullah, a dedicated mother whose husband passed away 36 years ago leaving her with nine children. “I wanted to surprise Um Abdullah; instead, I was happily surprised by her & her family welcoming me,” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted.

Sheikh Mohammed continued “Despite the difficulties, Um Abdulla raised her nine children to high standards in life and work. Despite her old age, she continues to raise her grandchildren after losing two of her sons.”

Further to this, Sheikh Mohammed has awarded Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Honourary Sash to Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, wife of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Supreme Chairperson of the Family Development Foundation, Chairperson of UAE Women’s Federation and Chairperson of Arab Women Organization.

Sheikh Mohammed’s award came in recognition of Sheikha Fatima’s historic role in enabling the UAE woman and family and launching of a considerable number of projects aiming to improve the role of the UAE woman towards serving her family, community and country.

On this occasion, Sheikh Mohammed said:” I am pleased to award Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Honourary Sash to Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of Emirates.” He went on to emphasise:  “Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak had always stood by Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the UAE, extended support for Emirati women, and brought up great leaders.” He added,  “Honouring Sheikha Fatima is not only my initiative; it comes from all Emiratis who have seen and lived her numerous achievements,”

Reference: www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae;

Global Leaders for Young Children ( G L A R )

Mission

To improve life chances for young children around the world by providing opportunities where developing early childhood leaders can become effective change agents and advocates for quality early childhood development services in their home countries.

Goal

The central goal of the Global Leaders initiative is “to encourage participants to become more effective change agents and advocates for quality early childhood development services in their home countries.”

G.L.A.R -  U.A.E Chapter 

Samia Kazi 

Samia is the co-founder and C.O.O of Arabian Child organization, and the founder of Arabian Association for Early Childhood Education (AAECE). 

Dr. Tariq Kashmiri 

Dr. Kashmiri is a specialist in public sector strategy, leadership, and urban development. He is a board member of Arabian Child, and House of Nobles Investments Group. 

Ejlal Jalal

Ejlal is an early childhood specialist, MsC child health, U.K. and winner of Volunteer of the year in Arabian Child organization. 

U.A.E Chapter achievements: 

1. Auguest 2011: launched a new bi-monthly column for early childhood education in a local online magazine, www.sailemagazine.com 
2. September 2011: Arabization of global views articles from World Forum Foundation to use in national advocacy campaign with media and key decision makers in UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
3. October 2011: Survey of early childhood professionals in the UAE 
4. October 2011: TedxDubai “creating leaders of tomorrow” speech 
5. November 2011: Free debate forum for early childhood professionals in the UAE 
6. December 2011: started training volunteers to become child advocates, "Child Advocacy training program" by Arabian Child organization.  

Our target audience: 

• Government policy makers and key decision makers 
• new generation parents 
• students 

Our goal is to raise awareness throughout the UAE about the following:

• what is early childhood education and care? 
• why is it important? 
• what does a child need in his or her earliest years of life to reach full potential?

Some challenges we faced...

• Early childhood market unregulated but changing very fast.  
  
• Lack of awareness in general towards ECE. 

Under the Patronage of
Her Highness Sheikha Bodour 
bint Sultan Al  Qasimi

download event brochure

Join the Early Childhood Debate to discuss:

“The challenges for Early Childhood Professionals
in the United Arab Emirates”

• What is the current situation of early childhood education in the UAE

• How can we strengthen children’s connection to Emirati Culture & Heritage?

• Challenges faced by ECD professionals towards the Arabian Child

• Celebrating the achievements of individuals and organizations with the Arabian Child Awards 2011

Debate will be held at Sharjah Ladies Club 16/November/2011 – 10am to 1pm

Debate Framework:

• There will be a panel of early childhood professionals from the filed, experts will include:

                 • Policy makers

                 • Early Childhood Academics

                 • Experts from the field, from high quality childcare centers.

• The questions will be moderated by Arabian Child and attendees will be given opportunities to discuss issues and ask questions.

• This will be a flexible framework with a short opening statement by each panel speaker, followed by primary arguments and rebuttals, sometimes with questioning of each other by the participants, and a short closing statement.

Event timing:

09:00  Registration and morning coffee and snacks

10:00 – 12:00 Early childhood debate forum

12:15 – 12:30 Short break for prayer

12:30 – 1:00 Award Ceremony

13:00  Lunch buffet  

Seating is Limited 

event is free for Arabian Child members only 

Send in your registration today

So you’ve made the decision to look for nursery outside of your home. Now what? Looking for a nursery program for your child can seem like an overwhelming task, but the first thing to look for in a nursery is quality. There are many factors that will identify the quality of a nursery program, and they focus on both the physical environment of the program, and what actually goes on inside the program. There are some core areas that you will want to investigate when visiting and selecting a nursery program. These include:

• Health and safety
• Teacher and child interaction
• Learning environment/curriculum
• Supervision of children
• Teacher training and turnover
• Program structure/administration
• Parent policies

When you first contact a nursery, you will want to set up a time to visit, and during that visit it can be very helpful to bring along a checklist of guidelines that fall within these core areas. This way you can note which guidelines are being met, or not being met by the nursery.

The following checklist may be helpful to consider. You may be able to observe these things, and if not, you will want to feel comfortable enough to ask.

Teacher and child interaction

• Are teachers engaged with the children?
• Does the teacher kneel down to the eye level of the child when greeting or speaking with the child?
• Are children engaged with one another?
• Is there a nice hum of activity taking place?
• Are teachers using positive language, and are they loving and responsive to children?
• Do teachers have good communication with parents? Do the teachers encourage parents to be involved in the child's learning? do they invite parents to come inside the classroom and share some activities and play games together? 

Health and safety

• Is hand washing taking place, especially after bathroom use and/or diapering, and before meals?
• Is the diaper changing table cleaned off and disinfected after each time it is used?
• Are cleaning supplies kept out of reach from children?
• Are complete up to date immunization records kept for each child?
• Is a disaster plan/evacuation plan in place?
• Are all medications labeled and kept out of reach from children?
• Is the equipment safe to use, without splinters or sharp edges?

Learning environment/curriculum

• Are there activity areas set up in the classrooms? a reading area with lots of books, a messy area for painting and water play, a blocks area for construction play, a home area for dramatic play, etc. 
• Are the equipment and materials in good condition?
• Do children seem to be excited and actively involved in play?
• Is there an outdoor area for children to run, climb and jump in?

Supervision of children

• Are children supervised by teachers at all times, even when sleeping?
• Are discipline or behavioral issues handled in a positive way?
• What are the ratios in the classroom? Is there an adequate number of teachers for the size of the group?

Teacher training and turnover

• Do the teachers have experience working in the child care field?
• Do the teachers receive ongoing training in early childhood education?
• On average, how long do teachers stay at the nursery?

Program structure/administration

• Has the program passed government standards for health and safety?
• Does the director have a degree in early childhood education?
• Are written policies and procedures available?
• Does the nursery have a plan for early learning?
• Are teachers evaluated annually?

Arabian Child is collaborating with Sail eMagazine's newest writer Ayesha al Janahi who will soon begin writing articles for Sail Magazine abut Early Childhood Education. Ayesha, who is the co-founder of Emiratweet. the first Emirati online social community, and who also has a masters in prenatal and neonatal research, will receive help and support from Arabian Child  who will not only be providing her with resources and suggested topics, but also will be helping her to align her articles strategically with the development of early childhood education in the UAE.

Sail eMagazine is an independent Emirati online monthly magazine, purposed to reignite the passion of reading and writing in the community.

Arabian Child is honoured to have been awarded this prize and we will be attending the prize distribution ceremony which will be held at Kan Ya Ma Kan Bookstore this Saturday. Shaikha Bodour Al Qasimi will be attending to distribute the prizes and there will also be a reading and a book signing of the father’s day books by Kalimat’s author, Abir Ballan.

Kan Ya Ma Kan is a small bookstore that only holds Arabic books and gives them the beautiful display they deserve. Such a small store needs all possible encouragement and support and therefore we would like to call for parents whose children enjoy reading to bring them along to this wonderful event.

The ceremony and reading will be held at the Kan Ya Ma Kan store in Al Etihad Mall in Muhaisnah, Dubai on Saturday 18^th June at 5pm. For a location map and the address in full, please follow the link below:

Al Etihad Mall Location Map