Last March 2014 I enrolled myself in the Certificate in Community Organising & Development held at the the University of Southern Philippines Foundation. This is a 40+ hours program brought to you by the only three schools offering the Bachelor’s degree in Social Work in Cebu, the University of Southern Philippines, St. Theresa’s college and Southwestern University. Faculty members from the three universities will be taught us the principles and practices of Social work for the duration of the program. This is a 3 credit unit certificate which can be credited if you wish to proceed with the Master’s in Social Work degree offered by the University of Southern Philippines, the only institution in Cebu offering a master’s degree in Social work.
Normally the course schedule is every Saturdays and Sundays but for our batch, which is batch 5, we had lectures for the whole day, Saturday and Sunday and then we had 4 hours of lectures on weekdays from Monday to Friday. Afterwards we will spend a whole day for community exposure and then we will be having the culmination.
If I am not mistaken this program was conceived because of the great need for social workers in the country brought about by the Philippine’s commitment to the Millennium development goals which is a commitment to the international community to eradicate or reduce poverty. In response to this commitment, the government has come up with the 4 Ps program (Pangtawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). Since millions of Filipino families living below the poverty line are recipients of this program, thousands of community workers are needed. I learned that in Cebu province alone there are 800 needed and that about 8,000 will be needed for the entire country. The pay is reportedly good (More than P20,000 per month plus allowances) although it is only for a limited period. (Until the end of the program about 5 years or more depending if they will extend the program), plus you get a chance to help our your fellow Filipino.
My objective in attending is not to gain employment as I have my hands full already in other pursuits. I joined first several reasons. First, I wanted to find out the difference between Social work and applied anthropology although I already have a surface idea with regards to their differences. Secondly, I consider this as capacity building since as an anthropology student at the University of San Carlos we have currently been drafted as “Research assistant” for various social science researches and from what I learned we will be very busy in the next few months traveling all across the country conducting social science research so I hope in some way this course might prepare me. Thirdly, I just want to gain additional knowledge and of course the certification for it. Who knows I might be able to to use it someday, somewhere, sometime. Fourth, as a polymath, I thrive on learning and I would like to learn whatever I can whenever I can. Fifth and lastly, although this is not the direction I am taking right now, I might decide to take up Master’s in Social work someday and I will be able to use this certificate and have it credited if I apply for a Master’s in Social work. Right now however my focus is on anthropology and archaeology.
We started our first class on March 29, 2014. Our instructor for the first day was Ms. Rose Sequitin, head of the Social work department in U.S.P.F. As an introduction to the course, she showed as a film which encapsulated the history, responsibilities, roles and challenges of social work. This then became her launching lecture and in the next 6 hours she gave a lecture on these topics.
Of particular importance to me was the role of the social worker. Listening to the lecture gave me more appreciation for what social workers are doing. It is not that easy to be in their shoes considering that they are fulfilling various roles in the community.
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