Argentina 25th January 2017
Dear social workers from the Zambian Association of Social Work,
I would like to take the opportunity after the visit to your wonderful country of the IFSW Secretary General, Dr Rory Truell, to express my solidarity with all the social workers in Zambia and congratulate them for the fantastic work they are doing. Also, I would like to thank Rory, on behalf of the IFSW Global who is doing an excellent job for the visibility of Social Work at a global level and is approaching the voices of all the social workers of the world.
Despite being another in continent and thousands of kilometres away from each other, with diverse realities and different cultures, we do have a lot in common. We both are a product of the European colonisation and the struggle for the emancipation of our nations. We are impoverished regions as a result of the profound social, political and economic inequalities. This is without any doubt a huge challenge for the Social Work profession.
Social Work is a wonderful profession that, among other things, has the possibility of being and stay close to the people, working with the most vulnerable populations, the working-class and strengthening communities across the globe. Together we are stronger and we can demand the fulfilment of the most basic human rights: the right to the land, respectable work conditions, housing, the right to access to healthcare and education. Our duty is politic, because we have to generate the conditions to narrow the gap between rich and poor so we can contribute to build a fairer and human world. It is not an easy task, however not impossible either. We can see the effort to reach such goals on a daily basis with many of our colleagues and their professional practices that contribute to the development of more equitable and less violent communities.
I feel proud to belong to the IFSW knowing that we are many social workers around the world that are working towards this direction.
The Vice President of the region, Dr. Larry Alicea Rodriguez and myself, we both want to send to you greetings and solidarity from all the social workers of Latin America and the Caribbean region and we hope that you will have an excellent and productive meeting with our Secretary-General Rory Truell. Your struggles and also your dreams are ours as well!
Continue with such a fantastic job you have done so far! You are not alone!
Best wishes,
Dra. Silvana Martínez
President IFSW Latin America& Caribbean Region
For more information about the Secretary General’s visit to the Zambian Association visit the IFSW Facebook account or Rory Truell’s Facebook account