Bon voyage: Katie Andersen and Angela Colson left for Burma yesterday to begin improving the quality of early childhood education. Picture: Helen Nezdropa.
http://stgeorge.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/off-to-help-kids-in-burma/1457833.aspx
BY ALICIA WOOD
12/03/2009 5:08:00 PM
REBUILDING a community after a natural disaster is no easy task. Gymea businesswoman Angela Colson said Burmese residents are still reeling from Cyclone Nargis that devastated the region in May last year.
Ms Colson has worked with the Burmese community for five years, and co-ordinated an emergency relief collection after the cyclone struck.
She travelled on March 4 back to the cyclone-ravaged region with her friend, Katie Andersen, to help improve the quality of early childhood education.
Ms Andersen, an early childhood educator, and Ms Colson will meet with staff from orphanages and day-care centres to assess their level of training. "We want it to be a collaborative effort,'' Ms Colson said.
"We are hoping to create a program that empowers them to use their existing knowledge in an educational way,'' Ms Andersen said.
After the 10-day trip, the pair plan to return to Australia to create a training program for staff in orphanages and day- care centres. They will then travel back to Burma to work with staff to develop it, with their goal being an overall improvement in the quality of education for young children.
"The context is very complicated politically, and we are hearing there is an ongoing need, and ongoing health concerns, but we are just working in small areas and doing what we can,'' Ms Colson said.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Off to help kids in Burma
Scientists find Dracula-fish in Burma
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88227§ionid=3510208
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:33:24 GMT
The Danionella dracula
Researchers have found a fish with Dracula-like fangs, which they believe is one of the most interesting recently-identified vertebrates.
The 17mm-long fish, which was found in a stream near Mogaung in Burma, is the only one of its kind to have bones projecting through the skin that resemble real teeth.
Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, scientists at London's Natural History Museum say the males use their fangs to jostle each other, but they do not bite.
"When you watch them in captivity you can see the males sparring," BBC quoted NHM's Ralf Britz as saying.
"They display with their lower jaws open incredibly widely, then they nudge each other; but we don't see any wounds."
Scientists say the translucent fish is the only known species of over 3,700 types of carp-like fish to have evolved with teeth.
"The teeth that Danionella dracula has are very surprising because none of the other 3,700 species in the Cypriniform group have any teeth in their jaws,” said Dr. Ralf Britz of London's Natural History Museum.
"In fact, they lost their jaw teeth about 50 million years ago in the Upper Eocene Period. Danionella dracula, however, evolved its own dracula-like teeth structures by growing them from the jaw bones rather than re-evolving jaw teeth," he explained.
HRF/TE/HGH
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