Empowering Women of the Future, Day 6 – Ajegunle.

Who is a leader? What are the qualities of a good leader? What are the responsibilities of a leader? And how can we become good leaders? These were some of the topics we discussed on Saturday the 4th of April at EWOF.

This session was very interactive – everyone participated and we all agreed that a good leader is someone who is able to listen to others and put their feelings and thoughts into consideration before taking actions; a good leader takes the lead in everything; a good leader never puts others down; a good leader leads by example, is able to encourage, motivate and boost the morale of teammates and a good leader carries the team along.

We then carried out an exercise – we all chose a partner and for 5 minutes, one person sat quiet while the other person talked, we reversed positions after 5 minutes.

Reflecting on the exercise, some participants said they hated the feeling of sitting and having to listen to others without being able to talk. We then related the outcome of the exercise to Leadership. Beautiful Bolade had this to say “now I know what it feels like when I don’t allow my friends speak when we are discussing, not being permitted to talk feels terrible!”

We also had time to also reflect on some of the topics discussed at the 2^nd Public Lecture and the Girls in ICT day celebration I, Ms Blessing Ashi and 5 of our Sheros attended.

Futuristic Funmilayo – one of our Sheros that went for the Girls in ICT day celebration said she was really excited to be among girls from other schools, women from around the world, Honorable Abike Dabiri and members of the press. She also said she is determined to do her best in school so that she can study at a reputable university in or outside Nigeria.

Bold Bisoye is 8 years old and she had this to say “those girls from Princeton College going to Silicon Valley in America are not different from me in anyway. I want to win awards like them too, I want to visit the world, I want the world to know that I am not only intelligent; I am also talented!”

After closing the session with affirmation of self, we took to the open field to play.

Some of us had to grow up so quick that we rarely remember the significance of playing with our friends outdoors.

Social Work- Brief History

It is only fitting that my first post gives a brief history of social work.

I would argue that Social work has its roots in religion- the entire life of
Jesus and Mohamed and the holy characters from Holy books were devoted
largely to supporting the less privileged and the vulnerable - Feeding the
crowd, teaching the masses, healing the sick and even raising the dead. Many
years later, Missionaries also carried out work akin to social work -
setting up and running schools and hospitals and food centres.

I therefore find it hard to extricate Social work from organised religion
and charity work. That said, I admire what has now evolved over the years to
be a distinct field of professional study - Social Work. This is where to me
the similarity between missionary social work and professional social work
ends. In more and more countries, Social Work Practitioners are regulated by
statutory regulatory bodies, which ensure that registered Social Workers
practice safely and in line with the published ethics and code of
professional practice and conduct.

But religious practitioners have not evolved in this same way, whereas they
continue to undertake roles that can only be safely undertaken by adequately
trained and professionally registered practitioners. Religious practitioners
and individuals may be well intentioned when they take on the role of
Counsellors, but do they really know and adhere to the ethics and code of
practice that professionally trained and registered Counsellors abide by?

Is there is safe space where clients problems are safely addressed and a
regulated feedback mechanism to monitor and review progress, change and in
some cases a safety net to manage relapse and regression? Do the clients
even know what they are signing for when they engage the services of
religious practitioners?

Do the clients know how their confidential information is processed, used,
shared and stored? Simply put, what do these counsellors do with the
information their clients share with them in confidence?

Watch this space!