According to the 2010 situational analysis by the Council of Social Workers of Zimbabwe, there is only one social worker per 42, 000 children in Zimbabwe.
In Communication recently issued to government ministries by the Public Service Commission Secretary, Pretty Sunguro, PSC instructed that no vacant posts were to be filled, created and there was to be no “processing of performance advancements services due to budgetary constraints”.
In an interview with The Zimbabwean, the Programmes Officer for the Council of Social Workers, Tendai Towera, said the government of Zimbabwe was worsening the plight of citizens especially children and victims of gender based violence in need of the services of social workers.
“There is a limited number of students training for the profession of social work and those who are qualified have left the country and are still leaving the country for greener pastures,“ said Towera.
He said there were less than 100 social workers within the department of social services and there was a need to address this anomaly. “If that number can be increased, it becomes possible to deploy some of them to the districts and communities so that they can protect and assist children and victims of gender based violence.” He said the shortage of social workers within communities, schools and health institutions could be linked to the unknown numbers of unreported cases of rape and gender based violence.
“There are only 485 registered social workers out of more than 3 000 graduates. Most organisations are just recruiting social workers whose credentials they have not verified,” said Towera. The Council of Social Workers in Zimbabwe is a regulatory body established in 2001, for the registration of social workers and to define and enforce ethical standards for registered members. Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in celebrating International Social Workers Day on March 28, 2013 with a march to the Africa Unity Square in Harare.
Post published in: News