World Social Work Day

April 15th was International Social Work Day, and it was a day full of events in Windhoek! Two of my UNAM colleagues were on “Good Morning Namibia” at 6am talking about social work and our UNAM department. Then, there was a big even with the launching of the Namibian Social Work Association – it recently joined the International Federation of Social Workers, and this was their first event. My colleague was elected president of the new association, and I gave a keynote speech on the need for social workers to become involved in solar energy as an area for social development (I think it makes perfect sense – but you probably would have to be in Namibia to appreciate it). It was exciting to see the energy of the social workers in Namibia, and they are clearly excited about gaining more of an identity within the country and were inspired by thinking that 500,000 social workers across the world were celebrating World Social Work Day. This event also got covered on the national news. As UNAM has the only social work department in the country, almost all the social workers in the country are our alumni. After this big event, we rushed back over to campus where the students also launched a new association: the UNAM Social Work Society. This was quite an event. They had it in the UNAM Leisure Centre, which is a thatched hall with a large dance floor. About 150 students were there, and they all were dressed in black and white. There were a number of speakers, scripture readings, and between each event, there was a singer (hip hop, etc.) or a dance crew. The different years (first year students, second year students, etc.) all got up and danced to “show their dedication” to social work, as well as the male students, the international students, the organizing committee, and even the lecturers (“go prof lightfoot, get down prof lightfoot” the dj sang). I was the “international” speaker at the event, and I had to tell the students that I had seen no event even close to being like this at a social work department in the United States. I didn’t take photos, but I’ll try to get some from a student and post them. The newspaper had a brief story on the student event, but I can’t get the photo to load.