Global voices
Around the globe social educators often work in little, hidden corners of local societies where they meet lives and personal stories that most people never even come close to. The working conditions are rarely perfect and it may seem like a never-ending task to help the countless people in need. But each and single social educator in the world makes a difference for somebody every single day and a contribution to better lives.
Global Voices, a series of articles printed in Socialpaedagogen (The Social Educator), is a clear proof that social educators make a difference and how the work in some ways is very different, determined by local culture and the social system, and in other ways is very similar in giving a helping hand, listening and providing some sort of structure and order in otherwise messy lives.
Special edition (pdf)
From Denmark
Young people from Denmark with development impairments and learning disabilities build playgrounds for physically and mentally handicapped orphans in Romania. The young people from Denmark are happy that they can give a helping hand, and the head of the children’s home in Romania is happy to receive something of value for people that rarely receive anything.
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From Istanbul
The Kurds and the Romany gypsies are crammed together in one of Istanbul’s poorest neighbourhoods and often experience a clash between the two cultures. A little community centre helps change of attitude among the children of the two different ethnic groups by giving them the opportunity to study their homework together and learning the simple tools of anger management.
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From Dar Es Salaam
Sister Etienne has been the leader of this orphanage in Dar Es Salaam for 20 years which is currently the home of 45 motherless children. In a country where money is fewer than most places and trained staff a sheer luxury it may seem up-hill to try and give the children some kind of life back. But most of the children do well, despite the odds.
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From Buenos Aires
In the slums of Buenos Aires a young girl sits on the bus on her way with cakes, presents and balloons to celebrate the children with birthdays this month. She works voluntarily to give the children a ray of sunshine and put a smile on their faces and offer them someone to talk to about the issues facing them – from understanding sexual diseases to dealing with a broken heart.
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From India
Even just a month’s voluntary work can make a difference for the children and other people you engage with. Dorthe Ussing, a Danish social educator, went to Northern India to help integrate mentally and physically disabled children in an ordinary village school. And despite the relatively small amount of time she contributed she managed to make long lasting changes.
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From Uzbekhistan
In the former Soviet republic of Uzbekhistan social educator Jana Tjitjerina struggles with some of the former Soviet Union’s old ways of thinking: That disabled people are not contributing to society and not a proper part of it. To change this attitude, Jana Tjitjerina has taken on the fight to make social education an established study subject at the university.
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From Prague
Among many of the new things and phenomena that came to Prague in the aftermath of the velvet revolution in November 1989 was a bigger and perhaps also more visible problem with drug abuse. Ales Herzog will soon finish his studies as a trained social worker and work as a street counsellor among the estimated 8000 drug addicts living in Prague.
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From Australia
In Australia, which only in 2008 made an official apology to the indigenous people of country, Rebecca Lewis is treading a double-edged sword in her work as a social educator. On one hand she is trying to help members of the indigenous population break a vicious social circle, on the other hand she fights the inherent apartheid-racism of the system.
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From New York
New York has an estimated 20.000-30.000 young homeless people of which about 25% are either homo-, bi- or transsexual. When they show up in the shelter where social educator Tanino Minneci works they often have one layer of social problems which covers an even more complex layer of problems – often, in one way or another, related to their sexuality.
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From South Africa
Racism amongst black, coloured and immigrants may seem like a paradox in a country that only 15 years ago could celebrate the end of apartheid. This is nevertheless what sometimes happens when you are poor, jobless and live in a shelter in a township where few have the social and psychological resources beyond just making a living day-to-day, explains Pumla Madikezela who works for Cape Town Child Welfare.
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From Poland
Social Educator Katarzyna Sadowska works in a special kindergarten in Gdansk in Poland and has specialised in Augmentative and Alternative Communication with children with a mental deficiency who have no language.
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From Spain
María José Calderón works to establish connections between vulnerable groups and Spanish society. She is also professionally active and has a goal of creating a common platform for European social workers. And she is even starting her honeymoon when she attends the AIEJI congress...
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From Hungary
Social worker Erzsébet Mohacsi from Budapest fights discrimination against Hungarian Roma children and against segregation in Hungarian schools.
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From Cuba
Assessments, systems and focused competence development are a part of the everyday work of Cuban special needs teacher, Hortensia Diaz, who works at a school for developmentally disabled children in Havana.
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