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Embracing diversity, strengthening human relationships and collective responsibility

22 March 2023 | Story Mariette Joubert | Photo Unsplash

South Africa celebrated Human Rights Day and World Social Work Day on 21 March 2023. Social work is a profession that advocates for the human rights of people as well as focuses on the responsibility that comes with these rights. Just as the Bill of Rights is the cornerstone of democracy and protects our rights, the social work code of ethics is the cornerstone that ensures quality social work services.

The University of the Free State (UFS) second-year social work students took an oath on 22 March which binds them to the social work code of ethics. Social workers have the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development which consists of four pillars. Focus is drawn to the last pillar, Strengthening Recognition of the Importance of Human Relationships. Human relationships are the core of social work and social development. These relationships take various forms, including social, personal, interpersonal, and therapeutic relationships, among various people and in various settings. In relationships where people flourish, trust is crucial. In contrast, mistrust skews relationships in a negative way.

Respecting diversity through joint social action

The Ubuntu pan-African philosophical framework is the greatest place to understand the significance of human relationships. To promote and strive for the strengthening of relationships, this year’s theme for Social Work Day is “Respecting Diversity Through Joint Social Action”. If we can stop criticising people that do not live, believe, or think according to our constructed standards of being, we will be able to do so much more as humanity. If we start embracing peoples’ diversities and take time to start building relationships with various people and bridge any existing gaps, we will realise that diversity is an integral aspect of changing the world in a positive manner. Corresponding to human rights and the theme of World Social Work Day, is the theme “Destigmatising intellectual disability through shifting attitudes” for Intellectual Disability Awareness Month [IDAM] which also takes place later in March. Another way through which we can start building relationships and embrace diversity is by participating in this year’s South African Federation for Mental Health challenge where CEOs of different institutions are challenged to spend one day in a wheelchair as part of an awareness-raising campaign to destigmatise intellectual disabilities.

News Archive

The Olympic Games – then and now

2012-05-04

4 May 2012

The first victory at the Olympic Games in the little Greek town of Olympia was recorded in the year 776 B.C. For the next 1 000 years, athletes congregated to compete at Olympia every four years in August/September.

The 27th modern Olympic Games will commence in London, England on 27 July this year. Counting from 1896, the year of the first modern Olympic Games, this year’s Games should have been the 30th. However, the Games did not take place three times: In 1916 during the First World War and again in 1940 and 1944 during the Second World War.

Prof. Louise Cilliers of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies will look at certain aspects of the ancient Olympic Games and compare them with the nature of the items and the records of today in a lecture titled “The Olympic Games – then and now” on Tuesday 8 May 2012.

Numerous questions will be discussed, such as what the nature of the records are that were held in the absence of stop watches and standard distances, why the games were held in August/September from the start, what the differences are between ancient and modern items, where all the symbols that have become associated with the Olympic Games came from, and if Baron de Coubertin was right in his glorifying of amateur sport during the ancient times.

Place: Senate Hall (CR Swart Building)
Time: 19:00 to 20:00

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