Tuesday, March 2, 2010

international social work and leadership

Given the recent disasters in Haiti and Chile, I've been thinking a lot about international social work, and how a social worker can travel to another country during a time of crisis and be truly helpful. Not paternalistic, or colonial, or oppressive, but helpful. International social work, and leadership in international social work efforts, requires above all the ability to listen and to be humble.

Dr. Gina Chowa recently gave a great talk on this topic at the UNC SSW. You might want to take a look--it's at http://ssw.unc.edu/students/leadership/multimedia