An introduction to social work

I dare not call myself yet a social worker. However, in this little essay, I would like to tell you about the experience of social work to me.

I find the work of a social worker meaningful. The satisfaction comes immediate from the happy smiles and the sincere looks of the people around you. While otherwise you may still be searching for the meaning of life, here you know for sure meaning is in making the lives of many others meaningful. Without doubt, you know your work is being appreciated. Every day counts as everyday, people need you.

If you love challenges, social work is the right job for you. I worked in poverty reduction. There is forever an abundance of poverty requiring help. There are thousands of people who suffer from Agent Orange in Vietnam. There are millions who have their houses torn down year after year from typhoons. The number never stops rising of those who suffer from unfair natural disasters. Pulling down the little fates are poor health care, poor nutrition and poor opportunities. As impossible as it is for the poverty problems to stop arising, the challenges for a social worker are infinite. As you delve further into the field, you feel the constant urge to learn more, to find a better way out for all these little poor souls.

Interaction is a rarely mentioned but an essential element of social work. I love the work because in here I can find the genuine happiness as I interact with people. Through projects, you learn about a variety of people. At one moment, you might be talking to a manager on sponsorship for a poor mountainous school. Right on the next moment, you would be talking to a village little boy on how the day had been for him in school. These little experiences add wide ranges of colors to my days and here I find lies the beauty of life.

Everyone chooses a career for a reason. I am lucky to have found myself reasons for the continual love of social work. Had it not been for the encounter with the job in earlier years, these experiences might have never appealed to me, thus now giving me the empowerment to continue the route I wish to follow.