Upgrades for Social Workers
writes on the seven months training and presentation of certificates to 55 auxiliary social workers to help bridge the gap in social welfare service in Nigeria
The event was a seven-month training programme and presentation of certificates to 55 auxiliary social workers drawn from Benue, Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) which closing section climaxed with a thorough review on the need for a social development workforce to help stem the tide of the increasing spate of anti-social behaviours including domestic violence leading to wife-battery and breeding of disconsolate vulnerable children as well as the countless mentally unstable persons who flood the streets.
In recent times, quite a number of anti-social behaviours mostly exhibited by young people who indulge in cult activities have started to take their toll on the society necessitating the need for quick intervention by major stakeholders.
Thus experts were drawn from the Ministry of women Affairs, Ministry of Health, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), Central for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Benue State University and the organisers, Twinning for Health Support Initiative Nigeria(THSI-N)
Meanwhile, social work as a profession is designed to ameliorate problems facing individuals in the society. It is generally understood as a helping profession that utilises qualified personnel who use their knowledge to help people tackle their social problems.
Understanding the work of the social worker as the one with capacity to mould the society along the path of honour, the government through the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has reaffirmed its resolve to take the project to the expected end. A strong social welfare workforce is critical to meeting the needs of children and the vulnerable. Everyone, from government policy makers, local administrators, researchers and social workers, to educators, community volunteers, workers, care providers and social service actors have a key role to play in ensuring the well-being of orphans and vulnerable children
Speaking at the event at the Halliday Hotel Makurdi, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, represented by the Assistant Director in the ministry, Mr. Ben Okwuosa, said the need arose for the training following a survey conducted by the ministry on the number of social workers in the country and the services they provided. He said the survey revealed that the number of trained social workers in Nigeria was highly insufficient to cater for the number of vulnerable Nigerians they are expected to serve.
She noted that currently her ministry was collaborating with the National Association of Social Workers (NASOW), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the National Assembly and other stakeholders to ensure that the bill on professionalisation of Social Work in Nigeria which had been passed into law received presidential assent. The legal backing, she said would enable practitioners to promote professional standards to improve effectiveness and efficiency and also regulate the practice in the country.
“The need for auxiliary social workers is therefore a welcome and good response to this challenge. Within the current vulnerable children workforce, there are limitations in terms of skills, competency levels and expertise which are the gaps this programme is aimed at filling,” she said.
She urged benefiting states to not only ensure that the beneficiaries of the programme were utilised at the various communities in carrying out social services to the vulnerable children and families but to also start training others in their respective states.
The Executive Director of Twinning for Health Support Initiative, Nigeria, Mr. Justice Ulunta, said the organisation which was registered in 2014 was established by the American International Health Alliance/ Twinning Centre (AIHA) as its local Nigerian partner to among others increase the number and improve the quality of community-level social workers.
With funds from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention through sub-grant from Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research Nigeria (CCCRN), Ulunta said his organisation had received mandate to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to institutionalise Auxiliary Social Work training in tertiary institutions in Nigeria as a certificate programme that would ensure a steady pool of trained auxiliary social workers to help bridge the gap in social welfare service in Nigeria.
According to Ulunta, already five focal areas namely Benue, Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna, and FCT had been selected in the first phase to host the training programmes so as to effectively introduce ASWs to the basic tools, concepts, processes and helping skills that underline all interventions with children, families, and communities,
“thus providing a foundation for effective intervention with this population.”
The Executive Director further disclosed that his organisation is currently working with relevant stakeholders including the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), NASOW, Nigerian Association of Social Work Educators and recipients of social work services to harmonise the training curriculum for Bachelor of Science Degree in Social Work in order to ensure that the products of Social Work Departments in the universities were equipped to deal with the challenging issues of our present society in accordance with international best practices.
He said 55 active men and women have undergone six months programme through active, practical skills development and experiential learning.
He commended the Benue State University for allowing the programme to be domiciled with its sociology department.
Also speaking, the representative of the Country Director, Centre for Disease Control, Nigeria, Mr. Victor Atuchukwu, said the 2008 situation assessment and analysis of vulnerable children in Nigeria revealed that there are 17.5 million orphans and vulnerable children.
He therefore lamented that with regards to the available workforce for vulnerable children, there were limitations in terms of skills, competency levels and expertise hence the need to not only increase the workforce but also to ensure all-round competence of social welfare workers especially at the community level where interventions matter most.
“A strong social welfare workforce is critical to meeting the needs of children and the vulnerable. Everyone, from government policy makers, local administrators, researchers and social workers, to educators, community volunteers, workers, care providers and social service actors have a key role to play in ensuring the well-being of orphans and vulnerable children,” he said.
He said the training programme was part of efforts towards strengthening the government social welfare workforce and improving the competencies and skills of personnel required for excellent social welfare service delivery to vulnerable populations especially orphans, vulnerable children and those in dire need of moulding.
On her part, the Benue State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Isegbe Ajene Ladi, represented by Mr. Joseph Imande disclosed that the ministry championed the domestication and passing into law of the Child Right Bill by the Benue State House of Assembly in 2008.
She said the importance of the law was to provide a comprehensive legal tool for the protection of children of all brackets living in Benue State irrespective of their gender, status, socioeconomic and religious background.
She said the state is facing various social and natural issues, ranging from flood disasters, early child marriage, rape, trafficking and criminality among the youthful age.
“This is why we need professional social workers who will provide prompt social interventions for persons faced with this challenge.”
She called on the organisers to spread their tentacles by looking into both the federal and state social legislations that will help for the care for vulnerable people.
While her counterpart in Kaduna Mrs. Hafsat Baba said social welfare was an immeasurable discourse which concerns all humans and require all God giving wisdom, strength and resource to manage.
She said the provision of the right safety net need much more than a government effort.
She said the training of social workers was timely as the acute shortage of social workers is affecting the progress of delivering government policies.
“Absolute lack of intellectual capacity and weakness constantly characterise the pool of our workforce thereby leading to flagrant dereliction of responsibilities and denigrating waste of lofty effort and resources, and this has become a constant source of worry for the administration of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and we have been in search of lasting solution.”
She said in Kaduna, the state government was combating proliferation of baby factories through a carefully articulated Orphanage revalidation exercise. Adding that essential family practice values are been taking to communities through direct contact mechanism.
Also speaking, the FCT Acting Director of Social Welfare and Development said the society was endemic with social disorder and social dysfunction adding that the society is in need of professional social workers.
“For us in the FCT the harvest is truly plentiful but the labourers are few.” He said the training will help to fill in the vacuum created by the scarcity of social workers.
Some of the participants expressed joy with the new status while also promising to impact their knowledge on the society.
The Benue State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Isegbe Ajene Ladi, represented by Mr. Joseph Imande disclosed that the ministry championed the domestication and passing into law of the Child Right Bill by the Benue State House of Assembly in 2008. She said the importance of the law was to provide a comprehensive legal tool for the protection of children of all brackets living in Benue State irrespective of their gender, status, socioeconomic and religious background