Contributing to grassroots community development in impoverished countries has been a career highlight for Dr Karen Bell who recently co-led a group of Charles Sturt University (CSU) Social Work students to rural India.

 

Dr Bell and Dr Bill Anscombe from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences travelled with 18 social work students to various villages near Mumbai and Pune for two weeks and have returned with plans to repeat the trip with a new group of students later this year.

 

“With the help of the India Study Abroad Centre (ISAC) in India, along with CSU Global, we were able to give our students a valuable international study experience,” Dr Bell explains. “This is the first time we have taken a group of students to India and we understand that this is the largest group of Charles Sturt University students to participate in an international study program led by academics.”

 

The students’ first week was spent on community orientation and involved visits to village communities in rural India as well as lectures and presentations from community organisations working in child welfare, women’s empowerment, microfinance, self-help groups, disability, health, and other human rights work.  In the second week the students engaged in fieldwork placements with local community agencies including mobile health vans, orphanages, mental health and physical disability services.

 

“Most of the areas we visited needed more resources and most agencies were doing valuable community development work with very limited resources and facilities,” Dr Bell said. “We were all inspired by the creativity, dedication and resourcefulness of the social workers and health workers we met.”

 

Many of the students rated the experience as one of the most worthwhile things they’d ever done, with most commenting on how their experiences in India helped to motivate and build their professional practice skills. For many, the program reinvigorated their passion to work for social justice and helped them to better understand the theory they’d studied during their time at university.

 

“The trip embodied the importance of human rights and social justice for the students. They were witnessing people working with those values in their hearts. It solidified their knowledge of the degree of poverty experienced by many people in developing countries and the level of under-resourcing. To have the opportunity to directly experience some of these issues is a very powerful learning experience. With the added intensity of having to operate in a context where the language is different and to live in a non-tourist, rural area was a challenge for staff and students alike”.

 

CSU Global  manager Ms Linda Rust agrees that international experience is a beneficial factor to students and that it ultimately contributes to graduate success.

 

“Recent studies of employers have shown that over 80 per cent believe that overseas study experiences lead to an enhancement of graduate skills,” Ms Rust said “This is in addition to all the other benefits students derive from international experiences, such as cross-cultural communication skills and the expansion of social networks. CSU Global provides our students with the opportunity to explore other cultures, broaden their life experiences and make new friends, while obtaining their degree.”

 

There have been many tangible outcomes as well as ongoing partnerships as a result of the Social Work India Study Tour:

“Since leaving India many of the students have maintained ongoing communication with their placement agencies,” Dr Bell said. “They’re keen to make further donations and to encourage additional child sponsorship, and to encourage other social work students to take the opportunity for international study.

 

“Charles Sturt University is very supportive of the program because it does benefit the students who take part. We hope that it becomes an annual experience.”

 

Student comments  

 

“The people we met while in India were generous, giving and welcoming. The people who are doing this human rights work within the community are so inspirational. They have a real passion to make a difference in a respectful, genuine way. They are looking for long term change.”

 

“The work I have seen in India has been to innovative. I have a better understanding of social work and the contribution it makes now.”

 

“This is a program that provides students with invaluable experience of community development work for human rights and social justice.  These are the core values of our social work degree and this experience in India has been a great way to get hands-on experience.”