NASW NEWS

NASW Member Plays Key Part in Training

Refugees to Help Rebuild Ravaged Land

"To return, people needed to know how to prepare," Ross-Sheriff says.

By Lyn Stoesen, News Staff

As a group of 28 returning refugees were being trained as community caseworkers in Kabul, they were becoming the first cadre of Afghan paraprofessionals to deal with the needs of their war-ravaged country.

Fariyal Ross-Sheriff played a key part in the process. During her most recent trip to Afghanistan, in September, she helped train the caseworkers and prepare them for the challenging, important work ahead.

Illustration: John Michael Yanson

Ross-Sheriff has long been involved in addressing refugee concerns. Raised in India, she earned degrees in Michigan and Maryland. She has taught at Howard University's School of Social Work in Washington, D.C., for 16 years, specializing in displaced populations at both the national and international levels. She also has expertise in research methodology, Muslim families in America and special populations including women, the elderly and youth. She served on the NASW Press Social Work Research editorial board from 1998 to 2001.

Preparing for the future. Ross-Sheriff also has a long history of working with Afghan populations. She traveled to Pakistan in 1989 to work with Afghans in refugee camps and those who had self-settled. In 1998, she returned with the organization Focus Humanitarian Assistance, a nongovernmental emergency relief agency, to assess the needs of refugees.

During the 1998 trip, she developed focus groups with Afghan leaders as well as representatives from special population groups, such as women and the elderly, to explore the resources they required. As a social worker, Ross-Sheriff said, her goal was to "empower Afghan leadership and support them."

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