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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke, Senior Reporter
In a significant move aimed at strengthening the country’s response to gender-based violence (GBV), the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development in partnership with the Council of Social Workers Zimbabwe, has initiated a comprehensive review of the curriculum for social work studies in tertiary institutions.
The revised curriculum is expected to include a dedicated module on GBV, equipping social work students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to effectively address this pervasive issue.
The initiative is being done through the Women at the Centre, a programme being rolled out by the Government in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with support from Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda to ensure increased and sustained accessibility and availability of essential services for GBV survivors.
Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day curriculum review workshop in Gweru last week, Council of Social Workers Zimbabwe registrar Mr Nesbert Tadzoka said the initial phase of the review was to engage the academia from various institutions to interrogate the current syllabi and identify gaps that might exist in GBV management by social workers.
“We believe that there was a gap in social work training, in terms of equipping our students for the gender-based violence curriculum development. So we are here with representatives from various universities to see how best we can input and influence the curricula to curb gender-based violence. We anticipate that after this process, our social workers will be equipped, and they will have the competencies and skills that are necessary to manage gender-based violence in Zimbabwe,” he said.
He said the curriculum would delve into the root causes of GBV, including factors like drug and substance abuse. It would also align with global best practices to ensure that Zimbabwean social workers were well-prepared to work in diverse settings.
The curriculum review process involves extensive consultations with stakeholders, including academia, practitioners and GBV experts.
Ms Charamba Sunungurayi, a lecturer at the Midlands State University department of Social Work, emphasised the timely nature of the review.
“Now is the right time to come up with a curriculum that targets gender-based violence because it was a missing link in social work. We did not have a specified module to look at issues to do with GBV, for example, when you are looking at issues to do with sexuality or with key populations. Social work is a human rights based profession where we also look at issues to do with social justice that is social change and empowerment of vulnerable groups to come up with a viable coping mechanism. We work in diverse settings but our students were not equipped to deal with gender based violence issues. But now it is the right time where now they have preparedness before they exit for field work attachment even after they complete their studies,” she said.
Another social work lecturer Mr Lancelot Nyamaka, echoed this sentiment, stating that the review would equip social workers with the knowledge and skills to address GBV effectively.
“Social workers would be taking GBV from an informed perspective, we will be aware of the legal issues, frameworks and policies that inform the issue of preventing and addressing GBV. In the past, social workers just knew the basics in gender studies but we will now be focussing specifically on GBV,” he said.
Mr Edwin Ndlovu, a social work researcher and lecturer underscored the importance of social justice in addressing GBV.
“Social work is premised on social justice as one of its values that seeks to ensure that each and every individual groups and communities receive services which are fair and equitable. So when we look at gender-based violence, I think it’s a cancer that has been experienced by a lot of people, regardless of where they are coming from, whether they are at workplace, at communities, in classes. It is therefore important to ensure social work students are equipped with skills and knowledge on how they should deal with these issues, because they work with communities, they work with individuals after graduating,” he said.
He stressed the need for social work graduates to be equipped with skills on how to handle gender-based violence when it’s targeted at them.
Online Reporter