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From November 2001 NASW NEWS International Issues Come Home
New York, Sept. 26 — In writing this column more than two weeks after the tragic and devastating attacks on the United States in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania, I first want to convey to social workers around the country and the world my profound and continuing sense of sadness and disbelief. As we all cope personally and professionally with massive death and destruction and its aftermath, we must also summon up our intellect and spirit. We require resilience and strength as we recover and remember. We are forever changed. When those airplanes crashed on Sept. 11, I was in our NASW national office. The 100-plus staff and I all gathered around TVs in disbelief and horror, while we looked out from our windows at the Capitol and Union Station, wondering if those were to be the next targets. In our most fearful moments that morning, we all bonded. People comforted each other. Executive Director Betsy Clark demonstrated strength and sensitivity. And that seemed to permeate the tone and actions of the whole NASW staff community. The only way each of us will get through this adversity is to recognize our interdependence. Before this disaster, I was going to discuss in this column how I have begun to increase NASW's leadership in international affairs and strengthen our international relationships. I was going to urge social workers to understand that our fate is connected to the circumstances of the rest of the world. How much more palpable and urgent this perspective is now. After representing NASW at the board meeting of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) this past summer in Singapore, I realized even more that we are directly affected by global events. IFSW comprises 76 member organizations around the world and represents more than a half-million social workers worldwide. At that meeting, we were forced to make a heart-wrenching decision not to hold the worldwide IFSW conference next year in Zimbabwe — despite Zimbabwean social workers' valiant attempts to build a quality professional program in the midst of poverty with few resources and supports — because of acts of violence occurring there. Now people in the U.S. and abroad are afraid to come to New York City and Washington, D.C. "International" means "us"! Additionally, the IFSW board heard appeals from Turkish and Moroccan social work organizations about their desire to join IFSW, but not being able to pay what, in U.S. dollars, seemed like minimal dues. We also struggled with the membership application of social workers in Taiwan, knowing that if they were accepted, the newly admitted and growing China Social Work Association would withdraw. We approved a powerful policy IFSW prepared for the Manual on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and Social Work, as we grappled with the very definition of child and family. How can we be respectful of different cultures and societal structures, while still applying universal human rights to our policies and programs? This continues to be a daunting challenge. I thought then of the overwhelming task of the United Nations and other international bodies to cope with conflicts, intolerance and inequality across countries. And what about the many intractable divisions within societies, including our own? We cannot expect unity; we cannot expect to have identical views of human and civil rights and of economic and social justice. We live in a world divided and unequal. Yet, we must continue to seek peaceful resolution of conflicts as we address real human need; the alternative is untenable. And now more than ever, I think about how we need political and economic leaders to commit themselves to working toward justice and peace. Most important, I witnessed at IFSW hope and opportunity for all those present. We were people of good faith experiencing and acknowledging our commonalities and humanness. We identified shared aspirations and universal experiences, and demonstrated our willingness to struggle with differences across racial, ethnic, gender, age, religious and national lines. And that experience is what is giving me — and, hopefully, will give all of us — the strength, resolve and conviction to move ahead relentlessly in these next weeks, months and years. Now, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 calamity, I want to express my admiration and respect for the courage already demonstrated by thousands of unheralded social workers on the front lines, and for the leadership shown by all our chapters in beginning to cope with the immediate crisis and long-term trauma, especially in New York City, my home. The social work community has so much more to contribute in myriad ways: to help heal individual, family and community wounds as mental health providers, resource specialists and community builders; to put a human face on otherwise abstract inhumane conditions and treatment; to demonstrate successful models of conflict management and inter-group relations; to comfort and connect people to the material and human resources they need to rebuild their lives; to advocate the adequate funding of and a destigmatization of mental health services, given the anticipated long-term traumatic stress and economic distress that will afflict millions of Americans; and to advocate an anti-violence, rather than only an anti-terrorist, policy agenda. I urge you to read a prophetic book written by our social work colleague Dorothy Van Soest, The Global Crisis of Violence. We will need to launch a new initiative that links our international, peace and social justice and cultural competency agendas, and builds closer alliances with schools of social work and social work organizations in the U.S., Canada and beyond. Let us generate the resources to support our demonstrated competence and commitment in a time of uncertainty and rededication. And let us begin. E-mail me your thoughts: President@naswdc.org Back to NASW NEWS Contents
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By Terry Mizrahi, MSW,
Ph.D.