Editors note: Photos available.
Families in poverty-stricken Ethiopia may soon see improvements in their social services thanks to a partnership between the University of Illinois at Chicago, Addis Ababa University, and a network of local nonprofit agencies.
The partnership joins the two institutions in a planning effort aimed at providing enhanced academic training for Ethiopians who want to become social workers.
"Ethiopians would like to improve their quality of life and the status of their families and communities. We want to give them some tools to do that," said lead researcher Alice Johnson, a professor in UIC's Jane Addams College of Social Work.
The goal of the partnership is to strengthen the undergraduate social work curriculum and establish a master's degree program at Addis Ababa University, located in Ethiopia's capital. UIC plans to provide technical assistance, materials, curricula and programs.
Training and technology transfer is only a small part of a larger mission called SWEEP, or Social Work Education in Ethiopia Partnership. It's focused on improving the social services infrastructure in a country that has been devastated by widespread poverty, periodic droughts and famine, and the social and health components of HIV/AIDS and resulting child welfare issues.
"It's a pretty incredible situation," said co-researcher and social work professor Nathan Linsk. "Poverty is all around, and there's a huge child welfare problem made worse by the HIV epidemic. The orphanages are trying to cope, but they're being overwhelmed."
Last November, Johnson and Linsk visited Ethiopia to assess current methods of training for social welfare workers. They learned that there is an urgent need to counteract the Mengistu military regime's decision in the early 1970s to end social work education. That decision has created a shortage of professionally trained social workers across the country.
Johnson says social workers who were trained 30 years ago have done really impressive work trying to sustain the services, but there's no group being groomed to take their place once they retire. "The country needs a framework and structures to offer a solid, reliable education in social work and develop some service programs that might be responsible over the long haul."
This spring, a UIC team will provide ongoing mentoring and consultation to Addis Ababa University faculty via a special Internet-based conferencing system providing interactive feedback and resource sharing. In the fall, Johnson and Linsk, along with the Council of International Programs USA, are scheduled to host a delegation of three Ethiopian educators for an internship.
During the two-month internship, the Ethiopian visitors will observe UIC's social work program and begin developing courses and plans to strengthen their own undergraduate curriculum and develop a master's program. Each delegate will spend two days at UIC visiting classes and three days at a social service agency in Chicago.
Once back in Ethiopia, the educators will finish drafting class material and course syllabi for the new curriculum in social work. Among the topics being considered are prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS prevention and training, and kinship care for orphaned, abandoned, and HIV-infected children.
Final preparations for launching the new master's curriculum at Addis Ababa University are expected by fall 2004. "The potential is here to influence millions," Johnson said, "and make the services more responsive to community needs."
The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development funds SWEEP in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu
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