Resources for Families who are Moving Overseas with a Child with Special Education Needs

Hi Everyone

It is almost the end of May and many of you are probably busy with your kids end of the year school activities. I sure am busy with one kid graduating elementry school, and 2 others taking their finals.

However it is also the perfect time to start thinking about the next school year. Are you moving to a new country? Do you have a kid with special needs? Are you concerned if you can find the right school for him/her in your new country? Do you know how to start searching?

The good news is that there is an increasing awareness of the need for quality information and guidance for parents with speacial needs kids, who are moving or living overseas.

Kate Goggin the website content manager at U.S. State Department has just published a special education overseas reference guide for families who are moving overseas with a child with special education needs. Among the useful information you can also find a list of overseas schools offering support to children with special needs. The list is organized by countries. So all you need to do is find the country you are moving to and browse the list of schools. This can serve a great startng point.

If you are living in the Netherlands then there is a special needs conference for expats in Netherlands on 14th June and another one on family in general on 6th June, led by Brandi McCollum of familysolutions.nl.

Do any of you know about another conference or resource for families who are moving overseas with kids with special needs? Please share them through the comments of the blog, and I will make sure to add your information.


Sharon

Why Speaking the Local Language is Important?

Hi Everyone

I had the honor to attend the celebration of Europe day that was hosted by the European Commission's Delegation to Israel yesterday on 12 May 2009.

The event was packed with diplomats from all over the world. It started with a cocktail and continued with a wonderful concert conducted by the amazing German conductor Kurt Masur.

The concert was opened to the wide Israeli public.

Mr. Ramiro Cibrian the Head of the European Delegation delivered a speech before the concert started. Now everyone in Israel understand English, so Mr. Ramiro could easily delivered his speech in English, and no one would have wondered. But, instead he decided to deliver the speech in Hebrew.

Wow, what a great decision. The Israeli audience was so flattered that Mr. Ramiro took the time and made the effort to speak in Hebrew (not a very common language). And not only that, in his speech he managed to capture the Israeli culture. It felt like he was a true Israeli.

All this has reaffirmed my belief that if you truly want to experience the local country you must learn the local language. Not only you would feel more comfortable in the foreign environment, you will also gain the respect of the locals.

What do you think?

Do have any stories about how knowing the local language changed the way you experienced life in your host country?

Sharon

Amazon Kindle - What a Great Solution for Expats

Hi Everyone

I just love reading, and so does my husband. He always says that he doesn't buy the books, the books buy him - He just can't resist the temptation.

When we were posted in Venezuela it was really hard to find books in English. So if we wanted to read, we had to ask our family and friends to send us books to Venezuela, or we ordered them through Amazon.

Then we had to wait, sometimes even 2 weeks until the books arrived.

This is why I was so happy to learn about Amazon's great product - Amazon Kindle. What a life saver for expats who love reading but can't find English books in their host country, or have to order through Amazon and wait for the books to arrive.

Other than that - Have you ever thought how much room books take? and how heavy they are when you add them together?

When the packers packed our belongings in Canada they were joking and suggested that we open a book store.

I guess that by now you are wondering what is Amazon Kindle?

It is a software and hardware platform for reading electronic books, and it doesn't need to be attached to your computer.

All you need to do is decide what book you want to read, download it to your kindle and read wherever you want - At bed, on flight, bus etc'



Amazon converted so many books to electronic books, so you can find almost everything.

Just go over to Amazon and check Amazon's Kindle Reading Device.

Don't forget to come back and let me know what you think about it.

Sharon

Quality of Living - Global City Rankings for Expats

Hi Everyone,

Mercer has released at the end of April their latest survey - quality of living global city rankings.

Many multinational companies are using Mercer report to help them review their international assignment policies.

What does this mean?

Multinational companies are providing expatriates an appropriate allowance to compensate on the hardship that expatriates and their families experience when they accept an overseas assignment, and especially when the assignment is located in a difficult location.

There are 2 types of compensation:

1. Quality of living or hardship allowances - They are designed to compensate expatriates for differences in the quality of living between their home and host locations.

2. Mobility compensation - Designed to compensate for the inconvenience of being uprooted and having to work in another country. This type of compensation is not related to the host country.

Some international companies combine the two type of premium compensations, but most provide them separately.

What does Mercer evaluate? Almost every aspect of life

• Political and social environment
  
• Economic environment
• Socio-cultural environment
  
• Health and sanitation
  
• Schools and education
  
• Public services and transportation
  
• Recreation
  
• Consumer goods
• Housing
• Natural environment
  

Each factor receives a score which enable to make a city to city quality of living comparisons. Mercer also created a grid that allows companies to link the resulting index to a quality of living allowance amount.

So what are the results?

The top five cities worldwide with the best quality of living are:

• Vienna, Austria (1st)
• Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
• Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
• Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
• Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th

As an expat I know how much it is important to compensate the expatriate family for hardship and overseas assignment.

But let's put that aside for a moment.

We were posted in Venezuela. I am sure many of you would agree that this is not the easiest country to live in. But, I just loved living in Caracas/Venezuela - Yes - the crime on the streets was everywhere and one expat from our community was robbed on a very busy street and in front of his 5 years old son. But, the weather was excellent, the country is beautiful, we had a live in help (which was a huge help with 3 little kids under 5), and we had so much time to spend together as a family and to travel.

So, I guess that for me the quality of life in Venezuela was a bit different than what Mercer would have reported.

Mercer report is very important, and employees hardship compensation allowances are essential, But quality of life can be very personal, and each one of us as his own way to judge and evaluate life conditions.

How do you feel about your host country, How is your quality of life and does it match what Mercer survey says?

Sharon