I have been away from my blog for a while but I realize that being a voice for others does not stop with this blog. It doesn't stop when I'm a student nor does it stop when I am in South Africa at a conference. As a student in Social Welfare, I realize it should not stop at all. I am inspired and stirred when I hear certain people speak, and in conferences like the one I am at, I see the atrocities humanity has committed in the name of self-interest, pride, policy, and economics. I see ideologies that have held people captive and have downtrodden the powerless. I see language and policies that have re-colonized those that we thought were now "free" from colonization. And to this topic, I can only be humbled that I was able to present my paper on some of that "language" and ideology at this conference - the 34th Biennial Congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.
I realize how human rights is such an integral part of social work and social welfare, but more than that - it should be a part of our general society and world view. However, though that should be the case, in actuality it is so little. So I am re-assessing, re-assessing how I want to spend the rest of my school years beyond what I do. Studies are important, but it is also important to be involved, to speak out, to pursue things, and to care about those who are weak, who do not have a voice, who are oppressed, who are taken advantage of. As a student of social welfare, do I really want to spend my time behind my books and theorizing in my classes or do I want to combine that with an actual carrying out of those principles and values my discipline have? I think I choose the latter because then I would be a true student of social welfare - believing in social justice and social action and carrying out those beliefs in a world that I'm such a part of.
And to my readers - whoever you may be; human rights is not just left to lawyers (and now to social workers/social welfare people) but it is something that everyone in every profession should take up. Everyone can play a part in human rights no matter their profession or their position. To me I have noticed while spending some days here in South Africa, the most basic part of human rights that we can carry out on a day-to-day basis is treating those whom society has deemed to be at a "lower" status than us with dignity and grace. I am not perfect nor are those around me, but I have seen how it can become ingrained in us -- our manner of dignity and grace towards others or the lack thereof; and I am conscious - conscious of my mistakes, my failures to do so, and my promises to do better. Won't you join me too in this human rights movement of a smaller scale, and be a voice?
