History of social work in Tanzania?

Answer 1

The History of Social Work in Tanzanian can be traced back to pre-colonial times where communities lived in communities and assisted each other in times of need. The children were regarded as children of the society and the community was obligated to raise a child as your own. This need extended to the elderly and the disabled in the society.

With the coming of the colonialists in search of raw materials, labour and markets as well as areas of investment there was a need to establish schools, hospitals and basic infrastructural lines so as to ease work in plantations and mines. Laws such as the Children and the Young Persons Ordinance of 1937,Affiliation Ordinance of 1949,Probation of Offenders Ordinance of 1947, and Foster Care and Adoption Ordinance of 1955 laid the basic foundation for Social Work in the pre-independence era.

A social welfare department was established after independence in 1961 with the provision of services to the elderly, persons with disability and children started after the Arusha Declaration that reiterated on the need of the disadvantaged to live on the 'sweat' of able bodied persons.

The establishment of the current Institute of Social Work in 1973 formerly known as National Social Welfare Training Institute gave rise to a professional group of social workers particularly in the government structure.

TESWEP a consortium of emerging colleges of social work has spearheaded the need to upgrade Social Work into a degree category rather than a Advanced Diploma. Currently there are 12 colleges under TESWEP who plan to start or will start Bachelor of Social Work or Masters Programme in Social Work by September 2013 with a Resource Hub or Kiota cha Ustawi wa Jamii (KUT) for sharing knowledge and resources through internet.

Tanzania Association of Social Workers (TASWO) is a professional association for Social Workers with zonal offices opened in order to create more participation and stimulate growth of social work at the grassroots.

A Bill is on the process, for establishing a Council of Social Work for regulating social work practice and education which will spearhead social work profession to a great extent.

BY ANDREW MROSSO (UDSM,LLB HONS)