Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

Strengthening the Socia l Work Professio n Prof. L am Me n g - c h ow of the Department of Socia l Wo r k recalls that t h r o u g h o ut the 1980s, teachers i n the department suc h as Ms. Eva B.C. L i and Dr. N g Mo n g - c h un already held talks fo r ma i n l a nd government units suc h as the M i n i s t ry of C i v il Affairs to introduce social welfare and social w o r k concepts. Prof. L am herself joined a w o r k i ng group consisting of social w o r k educators a nd practitioners i n H o n g K o n g to organize t r a i n i ng p r o g r ammes o n social w o r k c u r r i c u l um development and visits to social w o r k organizations b e t we en 1991 a nd 1995. The pa r t i c i pan ts were members of ma i n l a nd academic institutions an d government officials i n civil affairs units of different cities. Ma i n l a n d universities that have requested the assistance of The Chines e University i n setting u p social w o r k department s include Jili n University, Na n k ai University , Peking University, the Chinese Ac a d emy of Social Sciences, Fudan University, East China Polytechnic, Yunnan University, and the Chinese Women's College. The C U H K Department of Social Wo rk has als o received visitin g scholars w h o w i s h to enhance their knowledge of teaching methodology and curriculum b y auditin g classes here, and to observ e h o w social w o r k is practised i n H o n g Kong . ' T h e r e is n o w a b e t t e r understanding o f the m o d e r n c o n c e p t s , s y s t e m s , f o r m s , and fundraising aspects o f s o c i a l s e r v i c e , a n d the important of training s o c i a l work teachers,' says Prof. Lam. Training Programme for Senior Administrators of Non-profit Organizations in Mainland China held in September 2001 at CUHK. Participants were introduced to different forms of social welfare services, social work administration and management, and the implementation of social policies in modern societies. Prof. Joyce Ma, chair of the Department of Social Work, says that teachers of the department have contributed immensely to the introduction of social work concepts to the mainland and the establishment of social wo rk as a profession. 'Our teachers are driven by a sense of m i s s i o n t o t a k e partintheteachingand p r a c t i c e o f s o c i a lworkonthe m a i n l a n d , ' says Prof.Ma. As American and European countries are culturally a nd socially different from China, the relevant units in China find the systems in place in Hong Kong a n d Taiwan to be the most relevant models to learn from. According to Prof. Ma, the design of mainland social work programmes is similar to that in Hong Kong. There is however a shortage of frontline social workers on the mainland ； guidance for social work interns is also lacking. Mainland teachers and students also need to explore how to adapt the Hong Kong model to suit the social work needs of the rural areas. 6