Sunday, March 25, 2012

Developing Countries and Masters of Social Work Programs

Social work seeks to improve the quality of life within the context of community. It aims to promote well-being, fight for social justice, and improve the welfare of society. The social work professional is trained in Masters of Social Work to better enable him to achieve such noble goals.

Those taking up an MSW course can expect to handle a lot of communal projects. Your subjects are going to be others who have suffered or are suffering grave misfortunes in their lot. The problems in question are often ones found in the Third World.

The most noticeable places would be in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Hunger and sickness are common occurrences that never seem to go away or at least alleviated to a tolerable degree. While residents of well-off areas are capable of experiencing various amenities and conveniences, residents of these nations barely even get to eat properly.

As economics and realist policies rear their heads, we see more and more people keeping a surplus of wealth to themselves without thinking of helping those who might need it. The problem has to do with the wealthy and their refusal to give up their ascendancy (and riches) simply for the sake of others. There is a great deal of work to be done to fix this.

The daily income for millions of persons is a mere 2 bucks. With that little income, living is reduced to merely existing. Of course there is hardship everywhere, but some areas seem to get worse hardship than others.

MSW programs offered in several American universities focus on third world studies. The classes for social work also help students understand what injustice is and how to rectify it. You get training that spans a variety of fields and disciplines.

The MSW student is also trained in practical skills such as research and teaching methods. Often, a social worker is called on to conduct research or to teach people in communities. These abilities cannot be separated from social work, as they constitute so much of the work itself.

Social interaction is naturally expected here, so you should be competent at it. Social work only has meaning if it achieves its goal of improving someone's life, and to know that, you need to actually be able to communicate with the person. It is necessary that you become someone who has little difficulty interacting with others in order to succeed.

The IFSW has given a statement that helps to show what people in this field have to face. It states, “social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizes the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors.”

Knowledge of various topics having to do with society and its improvement are necessary for a professional in this line of work. Your goal is to resolve various issues that affect people around you and even yourself. Students of Masters Social Work courses can benefit greatly from their studies here.