Look how far we came and look how far we are going

By Dr Muzvare Hazviperi Betty Makoni

Happy International Social Workers Day to all BME Social Worker Connector Group members

I want to send this message from a strength based approach and confirm that part of what we wanted to achieve as international social workers relocating to the UK for work has been accomplished. And so today we look how far we came. We also look how far we are going.

Of course the road has not been easy. Who said it should be anyway? First and foremost, there were lots of hurdles to overcome and never to overlook. I still recall the phrase we laugh about in Shona Zimbabwean language, "kurohwa nezvehusiku" translated means, "you feel as if night evil operatives have beaten you very hard." To most of us, everything was new and so note my use of "the"- the UK practice, the legislation, the manager, the caseloads, the technology, the social work reports, the probation, the housing, the take home salary, the child care, the school runs, the spouses be they new or old, the remittances, the weather, the accents, the culture, the food, the household chores, the credit cards, the visa, the roads and the roundabouts and you name it. Why I ended with the "roundabouts" is because that's where I spend lots of my life struggling since I arrived in the UK as a spouse of an immigrant Engineer- quite like your spouses. Don't say Muzvare you can't be serious. Believe me, roundabouts still give me a horrid time in the UK. Usually I end up taking the wrong way out and end up in the opposite direction just like most of you who take buses to unknown routes on your first day to work. Very symbolic of our migrated lives. We can be in a somewhat lost mode fir a while. We often ask if we made the right decision coming to the UK. But look how far we came.

And looking how far we came is not enough. Look how far we have gone and how far we are still going. Quite good to be honest. And on the way we can see some ray of hope and light at the end of our tunnels. We now know we eventually pass probation and take leadership in safeguarding. We now know we eventually buy our own houses. We now know our children will pass and prosper. We are certain to get promoted. At least one of us out of 300(Fungayi Sibanda) is now Team Manager before three years. We now have practice educators and our own trainers. We have new BME communities like in Somerset. We have newly born babies thriving. We travelled back home to confirm to our families that we settled well. We sent money back home and saved lives of family members. Above all, we delivered on our workplace outcomes - we protected children and adults from significant harm with such resilience and tenacity.

I rarely use word "happy" especially where it does not apply. But may I say happy international social workers day to all social workers and especially those in our BME Social Worker Connector Groups.

Our first BME Social Workers gathering is in the Summer of August 2023. Save the date- 26 August. As I always say, "There is a thing called TIME."

Blog