Sunday, March 25, 2012

Fighting Poverty With a Masters of Social Work

Those who are in social work are mainly concerned with bettering the lives of all around them. Among the goals would be the improvement of society's conditions, and the circumstances that bind us all. If you enter a Masters of Social Work program, you are going to be given the tools you need for these aims.

Those taking up an MSW course can expect to handle a lot of communal projects. The beneficiaries, subjects or target groups to receive intervention are those who may be suffering from poverty, social injustice and violations in human rights. These are terms that more commonly associated with developing countries.

Nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America experience extreme social, emotional and physical poverty. The peoples of such countries suffer from things like starvation, malnourishment, and the like. It is easy to forget that there is a child starving in some African country, perhaps, when you are sitting down to a full meal in your comfy home: yet this should never be forgotten.

This is a cruel state, all the more when one realizes that were the rich only to share what they had, few would have to experience such suffering. The problem has to do with the wealthy and their refusal to give up their ascendancy (and riches) simply for the sake of others. A number of things thus have to be rectified.

People are unaware that many people have to make do with a daily wage amounting to barely two dollars. This is paltry, and it is reflected in their lives. It must be admitted that even developed countries have people who are poor, but their poor are rarely in the straits in which those from developing countries find themselves.

The developing world is a subject of great interest to social workers. The training given to those in MSW courses also helps them recognize that other issues, such as injustices, must be dealt with. This is a comprehensive program, one that includes lessons dealing with politics to society and its workings.

You are going to be asked to learn how to research as well as teach. Often, a social worker is called on to conduct research or to teach people in communities. These are indispensable to social work graduates who have to often apply them on the job.

You also need to be good at communicating with others. It is necessary to comprehend the needs of others in this field. It is impossible to do much good in this field if you cannot be at ease with others, and if your guard is so far up all the time that you never manage to see what their problems are.

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. The social web was noted for its immense complication and for the connectedness of people to one another.

The social work professional knows and can handle matters concerning human development, social theory and social systems. You have to have the ability to look at a knot in the social fabric and unravel it. A Masters Social Work program trains and equips students in handling such matters.