Three School of Social Work faculty still trying to absorb lessons from South AFrican trip Their bags are unpacked, the souvenirs from a trip to South Africa put away.
But three Indiana University School of Social Work faculty members are still trying to absorb the full impact left by the journey to an international conference.
“I didn’t see anything I was not expecting, but that doesn’t mean I was prepared to see it,” Patricia Howes, Director of the Child Welfare Education and Training Partnership.
 |
| Patricia Howes |
“Their rural areas make southern Indiana look like a metropolis and I knew that, “Howes said. “But it was really different to see it.”
Associate Professor of Social Work Lisa McGuire described
 |
| Lisa McGuire | the trip as an “expanding experience,” one that brought home the feeling part of being part of a world-wide effort to bring about change. “It really did make me feel that being a social worker is a global thing,” she explained.
“It impacted and affected me forever,” said Sherry Gass, the MSW Student Services Coordinator. “I’m still looking for the words to understand that,” she said.
The three were
 |
| Sherry Gass | part of a contingent of faculty from the School of Social work to travel to Durban, South Africa to present papers at the 34th Biannual Congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.
They all had presentations to make at the conference and could easily have stayed in Durban. On a professional level that alone would have made the trip worthwhile as they listened to and rubbed shoulders with social workers from around the world.
Instead, they decided to “drop-in” on Bloemfontein, the capital city of the Free State and home to the University of the Free State. Of course by dropping in, it took a 90-minute flight to get to there.
The side-trip to Bloemfontein, a city that looked somewhat like Indianapolis, had several goals, one of which was to see how their counterparts in South Africa were dealing with child welfare issues, while the other was to gather first-hand information about what was going on there so they would be better prepared to advise social work students who might choose South Africa as a site for their practicum.
With the help of the Community Service Directorate and the Department of Social Work at the University of the Free State, they were able to spend time with the Child Welfare Bloemfontein staff, a private agency. IUPUI and the University of the Free State have built a relationship of working together and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
As in the Unites States there are lots of public-private partnerships, McGuire noted. “That certainly is the way child welfare developed in the United States and that’s what is happening in South Africa as well.
Among the places they visited was a facility called “The Barn.” It was an old cavernous building that had been divided up into small cubicles situated along narrow hallways with a padlock for the door. While the living areas had a door and walls, the cubicle had no ceiling.
Families with children lived there and the three social workers worried about what would happen if a fire ever broke out there. “It just highlighted that housing is a huge issue,” McGuire said.
After all, they had seen squatter camps where housing was made out of anything that could be found like corrugated boxes.
While social workers in Bloemfontein deal with child abuse and neglect, they also have to confront the fall-out from HIV/Aids. “We think of family preservation and getting kids back to families.” McGuire noted. “There, it was a case of no families to go back to. So many of these kids don’t have a home to go back to.”
But social workers there have to deal with something American social workers don’t normally see – tribal issues affecting the adoption of the child.
There were other differences, too. Howes pointed out that a government policy affecting children is expected to be adopted in South Africa. Among other things, it addresses testing for virginity. “Certain part of the culture thinks its nonsense, but the truth is in some tribal cultures, it’s a big deal,” thus the effort to include it in the pending law.
They visited other sites, including a residential facility for children. The facility had children living there, but was still missing windows as the work continued. They also visited a rural project, where the Ladies Lunch Club prepared one of the best meals they had in South Africa on a propane camp-style stove. “The people we met were so heartfelt in wanting to meet and welcome us,” Gass said.
The country was celebrating the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela while they were there and all three of the women found everyone very interested in talking about the country’s history. “We talk about 9-11 and they talk about 1994 and everybody knows what it means,” Howes said.
Apartheid had led to discriminatory practices against blacks but following strikes and demonstrations, eventually leading to Mandela being elected as the country’s first black president in 1994.
They found a number of people not only able to talk about their own country’s history but were up to date and knowledgeable about the prospect of the United State’s electing its first black president as well.
They realized that an understanding of the history of apartheid and what has happened since 1994 is crucial to a student understanding what they will face in South Africa. “It helped me to see how to connect students with learning opportunities and the people they may be working with,” Gass said.
No doubt social work agencies in South Africa will need all the help they can get. To fully implement the new child-related policies the country is getting ready to adopt South Africa estimates it will need 14,000 social workers or some 10,000 more than the country currently has.
| 
