Summary

Hurricane Maria made landfall on the southwest coast of Dominica on the 18th September 2017 as a category 5 Hurricane with 160mph wind speed. This left 31 people dead, 37 missing. Around 65,000, that is, approximately 80% of the population were directly affected and more than 90% of roofs were damaged or destroyed. Power and water supplies were disrupted and entire crops destroyed.This research examined the psychosocial issues that faced the Dominican population of female headed households after Hurricane Maria. It also examined the current physical state of homes of these women as they struggle to find some form of normalcy in living. Its main focus will support community resilience, one of the four priority areas of the Regional Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy. The results can hopefully motivate people and or organisations to become more involved in comprehensive disaster management and have long term changes which can have a positive national, regional and international implications for strengthening disaster resilience.Pre-existing, structural gender inequalities mean that disasters affect women and girls in different ways than they affect boys and men. The vulnerability of females increases when they are in a lower socioeconomic group, particularly in the Global South. This vulnerability impacts preparedness, evacuation, response, number of deaths and recovery. The reasons for this vulnerability can often be traced to the roles females hold in society and existing gender and cultural norms where they live. Research in this area can help the understanding of women and how they cope in such disasters.The aims were: To examine the living conditions of persons immediately after Hurricane Maria and also four years later; to find out what issues and challenges are impacting their quality of life and to expose the gaps in their current needs.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Caribbean, disaster, Hurricane Maria, climate change, female headed households, SIDS

Summary

This presentation will explore the response and experience of social workers in Malawi dealing with the immediate impact and consequences of disaster on communities as a direct consequence of the impact of global climate change. Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world (172/189), is particularly prone to adverse climate hazards that include dry spells, seasonal droughts, intense rainfall, riverine floods, and flash floods. We will focus on the learning from the recent experiences of the impact of Cyclone Freddy, which dissipated six months of rain fall in six days in Southern Malawi in March 2023, leading to loss of life, injury and devastation of crops, homes and infrastructure. Drawing on the voices of social workers (n=20) we will highlight some of their experiences, and the impact and responses of social workers. We will explore critical issues for social work and social work practice in responding to and dealing with the consequences of disaster on individuals, citizens and communities. We will highlight micro and macro challenges for social work practice. We will consider future actions to building adaptive capacity for social work to respond to future threats and disasters. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Malawi, Disaster Management,  Social Workers, citizens and communities,  challenges,  future action 

Summary

This abstract fits closely with three sub-themes: poverty and social inequalities4, climate change and social work and social development6, and social work social policy and the Sustainable Development Goals14.\ The Perivoli Schools Trust (PST) is an educarer training programme which offers free training for early childcare and education professionals who support children aged 0-4 years old through centre-based provision. The programme began in Namibia in 2012 and has since been expanded to other countries in southern Africa. Namibia is ranked as a middle-income country but has one of the most unequal distributions of income per capita in the world, with more than 43% of people living in poverty4\ (NSA, 2021).\ Whilst the PST programme is present in all of Namibia’s 14 regions, it is more prevalent in rural and poor areas4 because of its strong focus upon the capacity building of staff4\ and the sustainable use of waste materials to improvise teaching resources and activities in the absence of funding 6.\ The project connects closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3/4/5 (good health and wellbeing, quality education, and gender equality4) 12/13 (responsible consumption and production, and climate action6), and the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development in promoting sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development through sustainable human relationships (IFSW, 2012)14.This paper presents the findings from the 3-year collaborative qualitative study between the University of Namibia and the University of Bristol, UK. Interviews (n=74), Africa-centric talking circles (n=6) and creative arts-based workshops (n=6) were undertaken in six early years centres, with educarers, parents and family members, children and members of the community within three diverse regions in Namibia. Data was thematically analysed collaboratively by academics from both partner institutions using a virtual platform. \ Emerging themes were identified and the preliminary findings from the project will be presented.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Early Years, Childcare, Communities, Education, Social Development, Waste Materials, Environmental, Sustainability, Poverty, Social Impact

Summary

The climate crisis is accelerating even quicker than feared and has devastating consequences for nature, animals and the people, especially people that social workers engage with.\\ Sweden has, despite severe cutdowns, an international reputation for being a sucessful welfare state and it has\\  a strong self-conceptualisation as being a role model for environmental sustainability. Yet,\\ Swedes have one of the highest ecological footprints on earth on account of high consumption rates.\\  The\\ 2022 People’s Charter exhort social workers across the globe to embrace\\ eco-social justice and environmental sustainability, with the first call to action framed as\\ Ecological integrity: From exploitation to recognising the rights of nature for sustainable co-existence.\\ This presentation, drawn from qualitative research with social workers in Sweden, highlights the gaps between global rhetoric and on the ground realities, and the huge chasm between\\  social worker’s commitment to climate justice on a personal level and their professional practice. The empirical data show that while social workers are aware of the importance of responding to climate change, they see the call to action as being far removed from the demands of daily practice.\\  There are strong indications that individualization, specialization and\\  the impositions of efficiency and narrowly defined outcomes, which are features of neoliberalism and new public management, influence social workers’ scope of work in decided ways.\\  \\ We discuss the implications of these for the politization of social work and the importance of an emancipatory praxis in social work education and practice.\\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

climate crisis, eco-social justice, neoliberalism, new public management, emancipatory praxis\\