The School of Social work in the College of Sciences and Humanities of the University of Hargeisa has today marked The World Social Work Day at the auditorium University of Hargeisa. The World Social Work day has been celebrated by the School of Social Work since its inception in 2013 as it’s celebrated throughout March in the world over. The event saw a sea of participants drawn from different quarters of the society – be they the Government agencies, United Nation Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, and the people in the academia with whom the School of Social Work has close working relationship.
At the outset, the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mr. Mukhtar Mohamed Abby took the floor ,and spoke about the history and the importance of The World Social Work Day. He stated that The World Social Work Day was launched by the International Federation of Social Workers known as (IFSW): in1983 and later other Social Work organisations such as the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) have joined as partners to the event. He mentioned that the main aim on this International day’s celebration – the Social work organisations are supposed to bring messages to their governments, communities, and peer professional groups on the unique and significant contributions of the Social Work profession.
The other officials from the Government agencies, International Organisations and business communities have all spoken on the occasion and reiterated that the Social Worker’s role in the vulnerable and downtrodden community across Somaliland must be recognized and added to this that the Social work profession per se must be recognized as they are rendering selfless services to the society.
Dr. Jama Musse Jama, the founder of the Hargeisa cultural centre mentioned that the Social work education must be the contextualized since we have rich culture that dictates helping helpless people to help themselves. Honourable Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan, the General Director of the Ministry of Justice of Somaliland has also taken the floor and addressed on the occasion and stated that the Social Workers at the School of Social Work should be given access to prisons, Juvenile centres, and correctional centres around the country in order that the social workers be able to offer professional counselling to the inmates of those correctional institutions. He strongly urged the government of Somaliland to operationalize the Juvenile Justice law which remained on paper since 2007,but needs to be translated into action, and to that end, he said that operationalizing Juvenile Justice law, will address legal problems encountered with the children, for instance, children in conflict with law will have separate Juvenile institutions or rehabilitation centres, Juvenile courts and Juvenile Police as with the other countries in the world over. He finally thanked the administration of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the social work students for their selfless services to which they are offering the disadvantaged sections of the community and to this end, he wrapped the event.