-World Social Work Day to be celebrated today

SOCIAL workers all around the world will be recognised today for their significant contributions and the pivotal role they continue to play in society.
They will be honoured on World Social Work Day which is being held under the theme: “Ubuntu: I am Because We are – Strengthening Social Solidarity and Global Connectedness.”

Social workers are educated and trained to address social injustices and barriers to their client’s overall wellbeing which include poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and lack of housing. They also play a pivotal supporting role in assisting persons who are living with disabilities, substance abuse problems, or are experiencing domestic conflicts.
Dionne Frank, a social work educator attached to the University of Guyana’s Department of Sociology, emphasised the importance of being a social worker.

Frank who has been in the profession for over 20 years explained that in many cases, social workers are the first line of contact that persons have to express their feelings, and to seek help to alleviate some of the sufferings they may be facing.

She stated that she has always had a love for assisting persons and helping them work through their issues and that enabled her from a very young age to enter into the profession she described as her passion.

“By nature I consider myself to be a person who has always been caring. Humanity for me is quite important, so I have always had that comfort about people’s welfare, how they see themselves, the role they play in their development; those things have always been important to me. So, it was not surprising that I gravitated toward social work as a profession,” she said.
Frank explained that after joining the profession, the vastness in terms of what can be done under the umbrella of social work was quite interesting. She noted that her first social work experience left a lasting effect on her mind that pushed her to continue pursuing her passion.

She stated that she spent several years working with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on a first-of-its-kind programme that was seeking to reduce unplanned pregnancy among adolescent girls in Guyana. This was her first opportunity to grasp the developmental aspect of social work.

She stated that what was clear was that if there was no intervention in the lives of those young people, then the cycle of poverty would continue to repeat itself.
“One of the things that stuck with me and resonated with me is what became of those young people after a year working with them. Many of them regained the desire to continue school…persons recognised their worth,” Frank stated.

Social work and COVID
Frank expressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented persons with many economic as well as social issues. She stressed that socialising is critical during this period.
Additionally, she posited that since the emergence of the pandemic, social workers countrywide have had to intervene and offer counselling to many individuals and families. She highlighted that in many cases persons were looking for coping mechanisms to deal with the issues such as job loss, depression, domestic violence, and even child abuse.

Frank informed that social workers engaged persons who were directly affected by the COVID-19 virus or who might have had family members who were affected.
She stated that she is of the unwavering view that the National COVID-19 Task Force should have been equipped with a social worker to ensure more efficient operations. She explained that as a social work professional, there is expertise that she can share regarding behaviour modification.

“We are experiencing a problem in terms of adherence to these social distancing guidelines and the protocols in general. Social work has a role to play in that behaviour modification is one area in which we have the knowledge base and the theoretical framework, so our contribution would be able to explain why a particular strategy is not working and we could suggest strategies to get the people to adhere,” Frank explained.

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION
Meanwhile, Shonel Enoe, another of the university’s social work educators, told the Guyana Chronicle that she has always felt a deep connection with both education and social work. She noted that this led her to a career in not just social work, but social work education.

Enoe noted that there is a particular need for social workers in the country and that she is cognizant of that and has dedicated a significant portion of her 13 years as a social worker to training and preparing other social workers in the theoretical and practical understanding of the job.

“I believe that I have been able to make an impact starting from my students and the joy comes when 2-3 years later I see my students functioning well in the various fields of social work but also in other fields,” said Enoe.

She stated that in her social work platform, she has played a special focus on women and youth. She explained that even before deciding to formally start up her social work career more than 13 years ago, she had held a special place in her heart for assisting two vulnerable groups in the alleviation of some of the issues they were facing.

“In the community where I grew up you saw a lot happening around me, poverty struck families and young people who were a bit lost or school dropouts and persons who were not doing much and growing up seeing that I wanted to be a part of growth and positive change and that is what drew me to social work. And I decided to combine that desire to help people with my love for educating people and so the combination of the two helped me to function well, and helped me to do what I love,” Enoe said.

‘UNSEEN HEROES’
Coya Halley described social workers as “unseen heroes” for their daily commitment and contributions to the lives of citizens.
Halley who also serves as a social work educator at the university, explained that in many cases the work of social workers goes unnoticed and its impact is often minimised.

“I would want to think of social workers as unseen heroes because there is so much that we do but because we are bounded by ethical principles and personal values people would not know what we are doing because sometimes social workers are blamed for many things but they do not understand what we are doing behind the scenes,” she explained.

Halley further stated that in her personal life, social work has helped her in her journey of self-discovery and improvement. She stated that the time spent as a social worker assisting persons with the issues that they face and devising solutions to those issues gives social workers like herself the strategic advantage of seeing issues similar to theirs from the eyes of other persons.
She added that she is very passionate about advocacy and mental health, as well as equality and social justice and aims to always work to ensure that all the clients she comes in contact with have access to resources that would benefit them.

Halley noted that as a past classroom teacher, she was able to see first-hand how personal problems faced by the students were often reflected in their ability to operate in the class.
She said that she has always had a love for social work and understanding why people act the way they do and how she can assist persons to get help.

According to her, social workers are gifted with the ability and the knowledge to intervene in critical aspects of persons’ lives to ensure that they are given that opportunity to achieve their true potential.