About Course

Rationale

Social Work is the professional activity of helping individuals, groups, or communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and creating societal conditions favorable to this goal. Social Work practice consists of the professional application of Social Work values, principles, and techniques to one or more of the following ends: helping people obtain tangible services; counseling and psychotherapy with individuals, families, and groups; helping communities or groups provide or improve processes. The practice of Social Work requires knowledge of human development and behavior; of social, economic, and cultural institutions; and of the interactions of all these factors. Social Work is concerned and involved with the interactions between people and the institutions of society that affect the ability of people to accomplish life tasks, realize aspirations and values, and alleviate distress. These interactions between people and social institutions occur within the context of the larger societal good. Therefore, three major purposes of social work may be identified:

• to enhance the problem-solving, coping and developmental capacities of people;
• to promote the effective and humane operation of the systems that provide people with resources and services;
• to link people with systems that provide them with resources, services, and opportunities.
• while Social Work is taught and practiced from many different philosophies, it is widely agreed that the profession emerged out of a Judeo-Christian commitment to ministering to those in need. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, according to James, involves caring for orphans and widows in their distress (1:27). Jesus relates judgment to the feeding of the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, caring for the stranger, and visiting those in prisons. The social work profession, with its emphasis on values of service, dignity and worth of the individual, social and economic justice, competence, and integrity, particularly when presented from a Christian framework, fits well with the stated Christian philosophy of the university and its Biblical statement of faith and practice.

The goals of the major are:

• to prepare students for general social work practice in public and private organisations with a special commitment to needs of Africa;
• to utilize a spiritually enriched Ecological Systems framework in providing students with a holistic perspective about themselves, others, society, the world, and their creator;
• to teach students to identify themselves, others, society, the world, and their creator;
• to teach students to identify multiple causes of problems and act as agents of social change in order to bring about inner peace, interpersonal reconciliation, and social justice.
• to prepare students to work sensitively with diverse populations including people of various ages, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and income levels with special commitment to the needy and those who are at risk;
• to instill in students a commitment to life-long learning, and provide preparation for graduate social work education, research and consultancy;
• to provide a learning context that empowers students to think critically and integrate social work techniques with their Christian faith in a professionally sound manner;
• to provide a stimulating and challenging educational experience that is personal, interactive, and responsive to students with faculty who are role models and professionals and Christians.