UNSUNG HEROES

Social work has been described as a calling because it demands an individual to offer help to others, often in the face of difficult and stressful situations.

The inaugural Botswana National Association of Social Workers Symposium 2023 heard that although social workers love what they do and the difference they are able to make in the lives of ordinary people, the reality is that this occupation is challenging in many ways.

According to Social Worker, also Lecturer at the University of Botswana, Dr Kgomotso Jongman, Botswana is faced with so many emerging issues top on the list being trauma.

“The trauma that we are dealing with has been inflicted on us in our childhood. This has led us to be unhappy and mostly to be passive aggressive. The aggression has increased Gender Based Violence and general abuse,” he said.

Dr Jongman, also founder of JoSpeaks, a mental health services organisation that endeavours to restore human dignity and facilitate personal development, adds that all these issues land on the table of a social worker, who has to also grapple with his or her own family issues and help the rest of the community.

He said the Social Workers Symposium was to provide an opportunity for those in the social work profession to debrief and strategise on how to deal with all these issues. Among the hardest things about working as a social worker are factors like the emotional stress that comes with seeing extremes of injustice and abuse, the challenge of working with vulnerable and marginalised client populations, the stress and physical injuries that often accompany the job and the inability to fix every problem or save every client.

Leronamang Garenamotse, a social worker based in Ghantsi told The Midweek Sun that their profession deals with trauma on a daily basis. He said to maintain sanity, it is critical for him to find effective coping mechanisms.

He has found a way to deal with all of the pressures by using his leisure time to engage in spiritual upliftment at church and in sport.

“I work in a rural area, so when I knock off from my hectic schedule, I find time to go to church. I am also a passionate chorister, as well as an active sports man. All this helps me to debrief,” he said.

To him, church is a place he uses to receive counsel, to refresh and reboot. “During this time, I also make it an intention to forget about all the trauma that I dealt with during my day at work,” he said.

He says the danger in not taking time out in their profession is that there is a likelihood that he could break during some of his difficult sessions with clients.

There is also a real danger of not being fit enough to offer the assistance that is needed and this could make matters worse for the client.

Garenamotse also worries about the low levels of understanding of the profession in Botswana, generally by members of the public.

“People don’t understand issues surrounding psychosocial support. They do not appreciate that just like when you are not well physically you need a doctor’s intervention and medication, when you are dealing with mental

health you also need psychosocial support and intervention,” he said.

Another challenge he experiences is that people fail to understand that psychosocial intervention is a process that needs patience.

“People think when they come in for a single session, they are fine. They do not appreciate that there are several sessions that they need to attend in order to be taken through the whole process of healing.”

This in his view renders their work ineffective.

Karen Phiri, who is based in Tutume shares the same sentiments. Her observation is that because of volunteerism associated with social work historically, there have been misperceptions about the profession.

For the longest time, social work was completely misunderstood and many, especially in rural Botswana believe that their work is to distribute food rations.

“It is for this reason that debriefing has never been formalised within the profession,” she says.

Phiri says another challenge is the fact that most of the time, communities believe that social workers are solution providers and expect social workers to resolve problems for them.

“We know that there is more to people than their problems. We acknowledge that people have potential to resolve their own challenges and we try to teach this to our clients,” she said, adding that their mandate is to help people help themselves, but when they are blindsided and overwhelmed by their problems and emotions, they think they cannot.

What fulfils her the most in her work is when she sees a positive impact in the lives of those she deals with on a daily basis.

Phiri has found a way of coping. She together with her colleagues have established a safe space for each other where they vent, share and cry together regarding issues that burden them professionally.

"What is important is just a listening ear, and a shoulder to cry on. To be told that you are not alone makes all the difference," she said.