World Social Work Day 2022 |30 March 2022

One of the presentations (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Symposium on social work related theses wraps up activities

To wrap up activities organised to celebrate this year’s World Social Work Day, the Social Affairs department hosted a symposium with the awardees of a degree in social work who presented their thesis to their colleagues and different partners involved with the social services.

The activity was held at the STC conference room and was attended by the principal secretary for social affairs Linda William Melanie, the vice-chancellor of the University of Seychelles (UniSey) Joëlle Perreau and the social workers.

The presentation of the theses were done by nine graduates who completed the BSc programme in social work for the year 2018 and 2020 as well as Master in Leadership under the Young Leader's Programme in 2018.

The theme for this year's World Social Work Day is ‘Co-building a new eco-social world: Leaving no one behind’. The topics for the symposium, ranging from factors contributing to teenage pregnancy, impact of parental incarceration on children's development, effects of heroin use on the immediate family, adolescent sexuality, use of videotapes investigative interviews in suspected child abuse, factors that lead to disciplinary problems among 12-15 year olds, factors influencing the primary-secondary transition process to teenage drinking clearly transmit the different target groups that should not be left behind.

Each participant had 20 minutes for their presentation.

After each three presentations there was a 30-minute plenary discussion.

Chantale Cadeau, principal social worker, has been with Social Affairs for the past 32 years. She noted that this activity is necessary to encourage our colleagues to take up further studies. “We also wanted to valorise the efforts of the graduates so that they can share their findings with their colleagues and policy makers in order to help us make the right decisions when the time comes.”

Currently there are 59 people working for Social Affairs. “We are doing our best in our work and our minister always encourages us. We have to acknowledge that the nature of our work is not popular among the population.”

Ms Cadeau also shared that as part of the activities, there were two ‘Tête à tête’ with Minister Patricia Francourt where the social workers expressed themselves freely about the love for their job and their challenges.

Social Services are always in need of people and Ms Cadeau encourages more youth to join this line of service.

The presentations were as follows:

• Tessy Alisop, a social worker working in the community, who completed her BSc in
Social Work in 2020 presented her research entitled ‘An investigation on factors influencing the primary-secondary transition process and the impact on students' wellbeing’.

• Winnie Racombo, a senior social worker at the Family Support who completed her Bsc in social work in 2018, presented her research on ‘Why do women remain in abusive relationship?’

• Natasha Louise, a senior social worker working in Child Protection presented her research titled, ‘Introducing the use of videotapes in investigative interviews with vulnerable children (2-14) suspected of abuse: Seychelles context’.

• Lucille Mousbe, a senior social worker in legal services wanted to know to what extent families are impacted by drug addiction with her dissertation titled ‘Explore the extent to which the behaviour of heroine drug users affects the immediate family’.

• Debra Melanie, completed her BSc in social work in 2018 and is currently a senior social worker and she presented her dissertation on ‘The different factors contributing to teenage pregnancy despite sex education in school’.

• Angel Jeannevol is a senior social worker at the DSS secretariat and she presented her dissertation titled ‘Exploring the contributing factors (particularly removal from parental care) that lead to disciplinary problems among 12-15 year olds; Examining the residents at the President’s Village in Seychelles"

Anna-Paule Doudee completed her BSC in 2018 and is a social worker working in the child protection unit. She presented her dissertation titled ‘A literature review of the factors, causes, patterns, consequences and effective intervention of teenage drinking’.

• Vivienne Lesperance completed her BSc in social work in 2020 and she is currently employedl with the Division for Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation. Her presentation was on ‘Exploring the experiences of adolescents in regards to parent-adolescent communication on sexuality’.

• Myra Ah-Time graduated with a BSc in social work in 2018 and is currently a social worker based in the community and she focused on ‘The impact of parent's incarceration on children development (literature review)’.

This activity was held for a whole day.

Vidya Gappy