Students go to Africa for placement

Posted on 2 February 2012

MA Social Work students head off for unique experience of international social work

UPDATE: Read our students' placement blog

For the fifth year running, some of our MA first year social work students are heading off overseas for part of their training. It’s a unique experience. Students spend time in organisations in Kampala, Uganda, for 4 to 6 weeks, learning about Ugandan social work approaches and culture before completing their placement in a similar UK organisation. We have had students working in hospices, with people living with HIV/AIDS and, for the first time this year, with children.

Of course the experience doesn’t begin and end with work! The students immerse themselves fully in the life of the capital city; just wandering round the streets and being able to visit people’s homes is learning in itself. Seeing what is shared across our two countries and what is different. The students also share the richness of their experiences with other students when they come back - a little goes a long way...

The links with Uganda came about because one of our staff, Marilyn Crawshaw, has been visiting there regularly since the early 1990s in her work on international health and social work. She and the local York African djembe drumming group, Voice of the Drum, of which she is a member, also link with The Aids Support Organisation (TASO) Music and Drama Group. Music is a great way of communicating but when Marilyn and the students go to TASO, they also provide a different sort of entertainment - joining in traditional dancing in true inhibited European style!

Previously students have been to both Uganda and Pakistan but the security situation has suspended Pakistan placements for the time being. The Pakistan links come from the Department’s contact with the NGO Khwendo Kor and its founder Maryam Bibi. Maryam came to us as a mature postgraduate student some years ago. It quickly became clear that she was a quite remarkable woman. Coming from the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, Maryam has built up an internationally acclaimed organisation working with women and children in that highly conservative, poverty stricken and war torn area. The university awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2011 and one its members of staff, Khalid Usman, is currently on the Human Rights Defenders programme at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the university. We hope to resume placements with Pakistan as soon as the situation allows. In the meanwhile, check out the website of the UK support group based here in York - www.frok.org.uk.

We also send some of our BA social work students to Peru - but that’s another story...

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Students go to Africa for placement

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