WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY 17 MARCH 2020.

Rose Henderson, President Asia – Pacific, IFSW

Greetings and Happy World Social Work Day!

As President of the IFSW Asia Pacific Region, I wish you all a very happy World Social Work Day 2020, an annual celebration that unites our profession across the globe.

I want to begin this year by acknowledging the very difficult circumstances many social workers around the globe are facing as we respond to the covid-19 virus. This has impacted us all in some way – directly or indirectly – and I want to especially pay tribute to our social work colleagues in Asia Pacific who have developed new ways of working to provide social work services and support to the people and the communities most affected. I further thank those Associations who have been able to share their strategies, learnings, resources and advice on the great social work activities they have undertaken. I encourage all to keep on sharing your work as members of our profession continue to grow, learn and postively influence community and political responses to this pandemic.

As we gather together to celebrate World Social Work, our Global Agenda theme is“Promoting the importance of human relationships.”

There are many and varied dimensions to this theme at micro, meso and macro levels of the social work role. This could include the various elements of the social work process and role including engagement, therapy, strengthening the person’s support networks, building sustainable change, promoting social wellbeing and peace. A further important dimension of this theme is how it applies to us as professionals – the importance of human relationships in our workplaces - the teams we work within, our leaders and supervisors. Whether we work face to face or continue to advance the use of electronic technologies in our work, the importance of human relationships remains paramount in social work.