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By Rory Truell, IFSW Secretary-General

Elina showed me how they seal the plastic bags. Just before placing the open ends in the heat machine, she places a small piece of paper inside, with a few words written on it. “The Ukrainian people are strong” she translates.

Elina is one of many women who founded and work in the local kitchen at the Community Social Work Centre. It is one of the first projects supported by a partnership between the Kamenets Podisk District Council, local communities and the International Federation of Social Workers. Together the partners have developed an approach which transforms the idea of ‘humanitarian aid’, (which too often strips peoples of their capabilities) into resourceful and confident communities with a hope for a strong future.

Elina explains to me that the contents of the bag are mixed grains and herbs to form dehydrated barley soup. Three hundred grams make five liters of thick nutritious food. The next bag has a more reddish substance and I ask if it is Borshch. “You know Borshch?” she asks with some surprise.

The dehydrated packets are easily distributed to displaced people, those at the front lines and anyone who has lost their normal food supply as a consequence of the war. Everything in the package has been shrunk through hydration and all the necessary herbs and spices added. All that is required is for clean water to be added and bought to a boil for about 40 minutes. The women in this Community Kitchen produce about 1,200 meals a day, making a significant contribution to food security in their distribution network. It is one of many projects that brings the community together, recognizing their strengths, creating opportunities for mutual support and ensuring people have an active role in their own futures.

Another example of such projects is focused on making bed frames and furniture, as more people are arriving in the district with nothing but the clothes on their backs. With the coming months of winter and dampness, the challenge for finding beds, cupboards and wardrobes has become urgent. Under such pressing conditions, finding the material and machinery to manufacture mattresses has not been possible. Thanks to the Romanian Social Work Association, these are being donated and bought in by trucks from across the border. The frames and side cupboards will be produced locally in an initiative supported by the Kamenets Podisk / IFSW partnership.

With each of these examples, the approach is to support the local communities to, where possible, develop their own enterprises, as the economy has ground to a halt. This comes at a time when people have not been paid since the start of the invasion and industries crashed when men were drafted into the army. This approach is built from social work experiences from other countries experiencing war or natural disasters as well as from successful examples of transforming poverty into thriving communities and societies. It is an approach that prioritizes local-led development over relief-aid and transforms the concept of aid into support for self-sustaining social and economic development.

The partnership between the Kamenets Podisk District and IFSW has worked carefully to consider these dynamics. The partnership has supported, encouraged and facilitated community enterprises and, in the case of the above examples, supplied the dehydration machines and an industrial dough machine in the Community Kitchen. But these examples only represent the beginning aim of this approach and its overarching vision. Further down in this article we will explore other examples. Before that, however, it may be important for some readers to hear more about why the traditional aid model is not the preferred option.

The challenges of traditional aid approaches

Globally, social workers have witnessed unintended long-term consequences and prolonged devastation bought about from traditional aid approaches. International aid in many situations of war and extreme crisis is often blind and deaf to local strengths and does not have the necessary principles and processes to form partnerships with local communities. Consequently, when food or clothing is provided free, any chance of local communities maintaining or adapting their local economy is immediately broken. No one can cost-effectively produce products when the same products are being distributed by aid agencies for free. Therefore, manufacturing machinery lies dormant, workers are displaced without income, and an environment of dependency emerges. We know from situations of crisis that when people are dormant, waiting for their water, their meals or their small cash payments, they often report feeling powerless, worthless and frustrated. Such situations often prolong or exacerbate their emotional and psychological challenges. Yet when people are active in their own recovery or a part of rebuilding their community’s future, their trauma symptoms are significantly reduced.

“At the Community Social Work Centre, we use the social work model,” Yana Melnychuk the Centre’s coordinator explained to me. “We have many resources and ideas here in Kamenets Podisk District. Yes, we are under attack and war. Yes, many of our loved ones are at the battlefields and we are so scared for them every moment. But we are still strong people. We know what to do, we know our community and how everyone must be supported and involved for our survival now, and for our future. We welcome every donation, and we will make sure that each cent goes to supporting our sustainable survival via our interdependency, and not by the dependency aid model. By working together, we will not just survive we will thrive,” she said.

The partnership and other IFSW projects do not reject all aid, and financial aid is always welcomed, providing the people who need it can collectively (as much as possible) be involved with how it should be spent. Examples of the healthy use of outside financial support can be seen in money used to purchase mattresses and dehydration machines for this partnership (funded by donations from international social work associations). Examples can also be seen in the IFSW’s work supporting Ukrainian refugees as they move from the war zone through bordering countries.

Social workers who set up information points during the refugees’ journeys on many occasions called for external financial support and the donation of clothes, sleeping bags, and medicine, and for members of the public to host or drive refugees to their next point.  As people were on the move, it was simply not possible to support the development of their local economy, nor did the refugees request this. They were more interested in which countries would give them and their children the best opportunities and where they could have somewhere safe to rest for a while and have something to eat.

Having learned from other refugees’ journeys, the social workers involved in the Ukraine situation focused on not having temporary camps or tent cities. In those environments, people can get trapped for months or years in frustrating, almost institutionalized conditions: ‘Breakfast is at 7:00, lunch is at 12:00. Never leave the camp without permission. A doctor comes on Wednesdays and an immigration expert on Fridays’, and so on. Instead, the social workers have worked alongside communities in receiving countries to open their homes to refugees and for the public schools to integrate refugee children. They have utilized donated funds to support refugees in converting buildings into medium-term accommodations with community kitchens and support systems. They have sought funding for the development of small businesses that utilize the refugees’ skills or negotiated with employers in other parts of Europe that had shortages of workers and sought funding to support the refugees’ transportation to these areas.

The success of this work, like that in the Kamenets Podisk district, requires the social workers to have their eyes and ears open to what the refugees want and recognize refugee capabilities and strengths in leading their own development. The approach does not reject donations, which are still needed, but it does reject the aid mentality, which is the dominant approach to social development in crisis situations, as it cannot translate the circumstances of crisis to situations of opportunity.

The Approach of the Kamenets Podisk / IFSW partnership

Kamenets Podisk / IFSW partnership has listened to people that have worked through change and are consequently using an ‘inside out’ model of development. The decisions are made on the inside by the people struggling but are informed by experiences in other places. This has shown the wisdom to think long-term, to create a local vision that sets a new course of life, beyond this war, a vision for a life even better than before this crisis.

Therefore, in addition to finding ways to accommodate and feed the 50,000 plus displaced people newly arrived in the district, a social diagnosis and skills audit is being undertaken to evaluate the resources sitting in the community. Teachers, manufacturers, trades people, community organizers, carers, scientists and others are being identified and supported to apply their skills in restarting or creating new enterprises for everyone’s good.

Simultaneously the Community Social Work Centre provides a drop-in service where everyone will be greeted and given an opportunity to sit, talk and participate. Programmes are offered including childcare and schooling for children to enable parents, mostly women, to enter the workforce or join community projects. Respite care progammes have also been developed, giving overburdened moms or dads time when needed. Support groups have been created so that no one feels isolated and newly arrived displaced people are welcomed. There are no barriers to participation and community members are also encouraged to play a role in the organization and delivery of the programmes. To assist with the challenges of traumatized soldiers coming home while on a few days leave, groups have been established to provide information and care. They also provide social education so that all in the district can understand the symptoms of war-related trauma and can act upon them.

And the Centre does not stop there…

In a relatively cashless society (due to the economy breaking down), the Community Social Work Centre staff and volunteers are transforming an old warehouse into a community social exchange supermarket. When possible, this supermarket will buy and provide local products, only importing essential items that cannot be made locally. Each item will have a price which can be purchased in cash or in exchange for points that people have acquired while working within the community. People like Elina in the Community Kitchen, Kayta who teaches math to children, or Aliona who photographs families to send to their loved ones at the frontline.

Conversations for the community to provide its own social exchange supermarket in the longer-term are already taking place, as there have been discussion around the need for a permanent food and accommodation social security strategy for refugees who return after the war.

‘What will happen when a bus load of institutionalized children return after the invasion ends,’ one person asks. This question refers to pre-war social service systems that were based on former Soviet systems. Under such systems many children with disabilities were placed in large institutions away for their families and communities. ‘We will need to rebuild our communities to include them,’ came a reply.

These conversations bounce through the Community Social Work Centre, across the tables and cups of coffee, the stacked boxes of winter jackets waiting to be distributed, the emergency food kits, the teaching whiteboards and the children’s toys. Conversations focused on making food today but thinking ahead to after the war. They each speak of hope, mutual support and recognition of each person’s role in fulfilling that vision.

A Learning Experience

The Kamenets Podisk / IFSW partnership is not approaching their response with any strict criteria. It is a practical approach, adapted from learning of other people in crisis situations. The key to the success of this approach and others, in different cultures and with different challenges, has been one very clear factor: locally led development.

Social workers have been critical to the outcomes: using their skills to bring people together in recognizing their combined strengths and finding outside support and funding focused on people and sustainability, not just immediate relief.  Finding international solidarity and support is an essential pillar to making these projects move forward.  IFSW, therefore, invites international funding agencies and all policy makers concerned with the journey from crisis to prosperity, to come, observe and participate in this transformational approach to international development.

I asked Elina, working in the Community Kitchen, if she would mind officials coming to see what they are achieving in the Kamenets Podisk District. She replied, “This work, this place, these people, give me hope [and] I want everyone to have hope. I want them to come from every country to learn how to make this food, to see how we do it. I want them to learn that their people are strong, like ours are. When we respect each other at home and in other countries, maybe then we will stop having wars.”

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank and acknowledge the leadership team involved with all of these developments. From the Ukraine Kamenets Podisk District, Mykhailo Simashkevych, District Mayor, and Yana Melnychuk, Coordinator of the Community Social Work Programme. From IFSW, Ana Radulescu (IFSW European Regional President) with the support of Herbert Paulischin and Alexandra Zoituc and the team from AsProAs (The Romanian Association of Social Workers).

The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance’s recent technical report, Social Service Workers in Health Facilities: Their Role in Addressing Social and Other Determinants of Health Among Children and Families, finds that with a social service workforce working in and linked to health facilities, there is much more potential for health systems to not only address clinical needs effectively and efficiently, but to tackle the inequities present in health care provision itself. Integrating social service workers in health facilities also allows countries to work towards more just, people-centered health systems and universal health coverage, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 3.

Five cross-cutting advantages or benefits of having social service workers deployed in health facilities include:

1. Enabling a holistic approach to health care: The involvement of the social service workforce in health facilities can expand the traditional medical model, which focuses on diagnosing and treating disease with medical interventions, with a recognition of and support for the social and other factors that enable more effective and lasting treatment. Incorporating this “social work” lens can result in fewer periods of ill health and increased access to advice and support to make changes in certain at-risk populations’ behaviour, social situation and environment, resulting in reduced hospital readmission rates, reduced length of patient stays in hospital, and reduced costs for health providers and/or patients.
2. Addressing the social determinants of health: A significant proportion of the underlying factors contributing to poor health are social and behavioural, as much as physiological. In identifying, preventing and ameliorating these factors—including poverty, social exclusion, poor nutrition and housing, hazardous living conditions, abuse and violence—the social service workforce can play a key role in preventing or reducing illness and a range of health conditions. The preventive role can involve primary prevention (preventing initial onset of health conditions in the whole population) as well as secondary prevention (preventing or reducing ill health amongst the most at-risk populations or preventing its recurrence).
3. Coordinating integrated care and support by working across sectors and disciplines: The social service workforce is trained and ideally placed to assess, plan, and coordinate complex packages of care and support. This care may involve input from medical practitioners and therapists, the support of community volunteers and civil society groups, and coordination with local social welfare departments, early childhood services and schools, labour services, housing departments and police.
4. Early identification and coordinated intervention in cases of violence against children, women or elders: Deployment in health settings can enable social workers with statutory child protection roles, as well as those involved in the assessment and intervention in cases of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and elder abuse, an opportunity for early identification of risk factors and signs of abuse as presented in injuries, behaviour or concerns expressed by patients or their family member on admission to hospital or when arriving for emergency treatment. Once risks and concerns are identified, social workers in health settings are well placed to carry out multi-disciplinary assessment, and lead coordination with police and other statutory colleagues in child protection agencies, in the process of holding multidisciplinary case conferences, planning joint interventions and carrying out multi-agency reviews of such cases.
5. Supporting patients across the life course: Since the role of social workers, supported by the wider social service workforce, is to help support people through all the major challenges and transitions they face in life, their deployment alongside health colleagues enables them to provide timely and tailored support to patients, to help them navigate these life challenges and transitions. Prominent examples include supporting older people to return home through organising the care and support they need following a fall or stroke and supporting the most vulnerable mothers and their infants—including adolescents, those without the support of a partner or family, or those experiencing intimate partner violence—through pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood.

Read more about the important role of social service workers in health facilities and how they can most effectively be deployed in the the full technical report: Social Service Workers in Health Facilities: Their Role in Addressing Social and Other Determinants of Health Among Children and Families.

By the Action of Somali Social Workers (ACSOS)

Somalia is currently suffering from its worst drought in decades. The drought has resulted in crop failure, livestock deaths and the loss of assets. As a result, it has caused widespread displacement, hunger and malnutrition. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), a total of 1 million people have been internally displaced in Somalia since the drought began in January 2021.

The Action of Somali social workers (ACSOS), a non-profit social work institution, is working to address the impact of the current drought by aiding those most affected. Social workers associated with the organization are helping provide individuals and families with basic necessities, such as food and water, in areas most affected by the drought. In the cities of Garbaharey, Dollow, and Luuq, ACSOS social workers are delivering food and water aid to over 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). In the Kahda and Dayniile districts, social workers are providing aid and other services to over 10,000 IDPs. This includes providing guidance and counseling for parents and children and making referrals to hospitals for those with critical health conditions.

Since the drought began nearly two years ago, social workers have been at the frontlines of the drought response, helping to save the lives of millions of children and families. According to Child Protection Coordinator for ACSOS, Sumaya Abdi, “case workers are playing an essential role [in response efforts]. Our case workers have registered more than 430 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), 371 of whom are now in very good condition. In addition, they have helped create a child-friendly space so that children can recover from the stress and trauma they have experienced and get an emergency education.”

As the drought continues, so does the work of the social workers. However, they are often met by challenges and limitations such as the lack of capacity building and a resource shortage. The organization will have to surpass these challenges in order to speed up the services provided by the social workers.

Also available in English.

1. Cuéntenos un poco sobre su vida personal, por favor.

Resido en el municipio y departamento de Chiquimula, Guatemala, soy casado, tengo tres hijos hermosos, dos varones y una hembra; disfruto mucho compartir con mi familia, salir juntos en paseos, especialmente en áreas del campo, compartir con la naturaleza y compartir con amigos en común de la familia. Me encanta ver disfrutar a mi familia. Entre mis pasatiempos favoritos está leer literatura de crecimiento personal.

2. Cuéntenos sobre la comunidad o zona donde usted trabaja. ¿Cuáles son los principales problemas que enfrentan los habitantes de la comunidad o zona donde usted trabaja?

Actualmente trabajo en los municipios de Zacapa, Río Hondo y Usumatlán, del departamento de Zacapa, Guatemala, especialmente coordinando con gobiernos municipales y comunitarios, para establecer coordinaciones o alianzas enfocadas en lograr la creación de redes de apoyo para promover el cuidado familiar, proteger a la niñez y adolescencia y evitar la separación familiar innecesaria, especialmente tratando de involucrar a líderes, lideresas y autoridades comunitarias, dentro de sus mismas comunidades.

En el tiempo que tengo de ser parte de la iniciativa y con la experiencia previa en el área de trabajo, he notado la ausencia de diversos actores sociales que realicen acciones dirigidas a la protección de las familias, a pesar de las condiciones socioeconómicos vulnerables y alta exposición de los adolescentes a diferentes riesgos que afectan su desarrollo personal.

También creo que los gobiernos municipales y departamental pueden hacer mucho más para lograr el fortalecimiento de las familias a fin de mejorar sus condiciones de vida y con ello reducir los riesgos de las separaciones familiares innecesarias, especialmente facilitando el acceso a los servicios que las familias necesitan.

En el área de trabajo funcionan tres hogares de protección, con quienes la iniciativa mantiene estrecha coordinación para promover la reunificación de las niñas y niños para fortalecer su vinculación afectiva.  

3. ¿Hace cuánto tiempo trabaja en el área social y que es lo que le motivó a formarse como trabajador(a) social, psicólogo, u otra profesión que brinda atención social?

A partir de febrero de 2005 inicio a trabajar en temas sociales, brindando apoyo a familias vulnerables a la inseguridad alimentaria, brindando especial atención a las que entre sus miembros habían niñas y niños menores de cinco años.

Decidí estudiar trabajo social, al darme cuenta que es una carrera profesional que sirve como medio para contribuir al mejoramiento de la condiciones de vida de las familias, especialemente las que residen en el área rural, por medio de la articulación de esfuerzos con otros actores sociales.

4. ¿En qué consistió la formación profesional que usted recibió (título, diplomado, etc)?

A nivel técnico estudié en la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala y me gradué en gerencia del desarrollo comunitario, recibiendo formación enfocada a gerenciar procesos de desarrollo comunitario integral, con énfasis en el desarrollo social.

A nivel de licenciatura estudié en la Universidad “Rafael Landívar”, graduándome de licenciado en trabajo social, con énfasis en gerencia del desarrollo. Aunque fueron diferentes casas de estudio el enfoque de estudio fue similar. Recibiendo formación profesional para dirigir, coordinar o liderear procesos de desarrollo de la población guatemalteca.

5. Favor de describir el trabajo que usted realiza actualmente y las principales funciones que ejerce.  ¿Qué tipo de atención o servicios brinda usted a niños, niñas, adolescentes y familias?

Entre las principales funciones de mi trabajo está realizar coordinaciones institucionales, para promover el fortalecimiento del sistema de protección de las familias y de las comunidades, para prevenir la separación familiar innecesaria. La creación de redes de apoyo para la niñez y adolescencia a nivel comunitario, municipal y departamental, involucrando y empoderando a las autoridades, lideresas y líderes comunitarios y municipales. También realizar gestiones que generen intervenciones para promover el desarrollo económico de las familias en riesgo de separación innecesaria.

 6. ¿Cuáles son los aspectos que más le gustan de su rol o trabajo actual?  

En general todo mi trabajo es interesante y me agrada cada actividad que realizo, porque van enfocadas a construir una mejor realidad para las familias y sociedad en general. Pero me genera mayor agrado realizar acciones, mantener comunicación y establecer acuerdos, para lograr que la población y las autoridades comunitarias y municipales sean parte del equipo que se esfuerza por ser parte del sistema de protección de la niñez y adolescencia.

 7. ¿Cuáles son los principales retos que usted enfrenta en su rol o trabajo actual y como los enfrenta o resuelve?

Creo que uno de los mayores desafíos es lograr la articulación de los diferentes actores sociales involucrados en el tema de protección de la niñez y adolescencia, porque sus antecedentes son de trabajo desarticulado;  pero es un reto que con el transcurso del proceso se va reduciendo la brecha y cada vez más se logra generar el interés por ser parte de ese equipo, por medio de la sensibilización y el empoderamiento sobre la importancia y los beneficios que ellos pueden generar y hacer historia en sus comunidades, municipios o departamentos.

 8. ¿Hay algo más que quisiera compartir con nosotros sobre su trabajo, su motivación, sus sueños, etc?

Mi trabajo es una bendición de Dios, porque hago lo me gusta y recibo beneficios salariales, es un medio para servir a las familias y crear mejores condiciones de vida para los NNA. Espero que en el corto y mediano plazo la iniciativa pueda ampliar su área de cobertura para incrementar el numero de familias beneficiarias e involucrar a otros actores sociales del departamento.