school social work - part 3

ok. so was following my prof to this primary school. my prof had started a ngo in guangzhou and they have been existing for quite awhile. so when the earthquake thing happened, they moved in to help the area. (in depth explanation later.) so they started an office at this new school. currently, they employ 3 full time social workers that are stationed at this school. they serve the student population of 700 odd fellas and about 80 staff.

as u read, keep in mind that most of the students and staff, stay in the school hostel. they only go home on weekends. so the school is kind of 24/7.


name of the ngo...

p.s. if u want to work here.. its 4000 RMB a month salary. (if u work for the govt, its twice the pay.)

so what do they do? kind of similar to what they have in singapore. they run an afternoon youth centre. like when the kids have no sch, they can chill out at this room. (i didnt see it, so not sure how big it is.) and under the supervision of the social workers.

they also provide counseling services for the kids, if they have any issues. so services include individual or group work, where they run groups. duh. hahha. topics not very certain, but can be a wide range of things, like discussing them about school stress, etc.

weekends, when the social workers are free, they do homevisits. this is for them to get a picture of the kids' home setting. so to ensure they are serving their needs. they might do homevisits during the weekday if is urgent, i.e. some kid has some issue, and they need to talk to their parents as well. (so they do do family work. which is cool. much better than sg.)

once in awhile, they'll run enrichment classes. those kind that u learn non-academic stuff.

and of course. any other jobs that help improve the lives of all the kids.

so while we were there, did some tasks that can be classified as others. the first night, we walked around the kids' dorms and helped them take pictures. so they can paste their pictures on their dorm doors. this is part of the slow but moving plans to make their dorms look nicer and personal.

next morning, we helped to design this notice board for the kids. cos they cant really draw well, so we drew the shapes and they cut it by themselves. words are by them too. this is some eco-firendly message type of deal on the notice board.


finished product.


the social worker who brought us around! outstanding hospitality as usual.

so it is much more impressive then singapore. this is total immersion into the community, and servicing the people. cos the social workers live in the community and are part of it. they dont come from sichuan, but they've picked up the dialect and are almost able to pass of as a local sichuaner. it is comm-based work, which is really much better (biased perspective here) than what they do in singapore. which is what social work should really be (not these bloody c&c-ers). some family work is done too, but their main target is the school children.

ok. so for some explanations. early part talked about this ngo moving into shui mo. (the town name, if you forgot.) so when the earthquake happened, obviously the govt has to respond, to help provide aid to the area, and also to rebuild back stuff, etc. so one interesting thing they did, was that the central govt, divided sichuan into different areas. and each province in china, was in charge of a certain area (not sure whether all the provinces take part, or whether its only the rich ones). like shanghai was in charge of this area, beijing another area, etc. so shui mo was under the jurisdiction of guangzhou (guangzhou is very rich). which is where my prof's agency is located. if not there is no way a ngo (esp foreign ngos) can enter this area to provide aid. so very cool about the way they divide and help each other. to serve your fellow country man.

为人民服务！