Moneague College holds social-work symposium

Scores of tertiary-level students benefited from the inaugural one-day symposium on social work held on Thursday at the Moneague College in St Ann under the theme ‘Social Work, Gender and Sexuality; Towards Empowerment, Equality and Inclusion’.

The event, put on by the Moneague College School of Humanities in collaboration with the college’s Social Awareness Club, attracted social-work students from institutions such as the Portmore, Brown’s Town and Montego Bay community colleges.

Keynote speaker Kristal Tucker-Clarke, acting director of policy and research at the Bureau of Gender Affairs, aimed her presentation at relevant topics such as sex gender, gender inequality, gender equality, gender-based violence and sexuality and their implications for women’s empowerment in Jamaica. She took time to speak, also, about the work of the Bureau of Gender Affairs in terms of gender equality for women and girls across the island.

President of the Jamaica Association of Social Work, Eva Forde also spoke at the symposium.

The students also benefited from information available at the several booths at the event, erected by the state agencies that supported the symposium. The agencies include the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, Department of Correctional Services, Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, and National Council on Drug Abuse.

Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Moneague College, Mark Reynolds, in hailing the event a success, said it was held to expose students of social work to the various agencies in the field and the services they offer.

“From this, what I hope they will take away is that they become more knowledgeable concerning our theme in the area of gender affairs. We think this is one area that needs a lot of attention, and we are hoping that our students will actually take away as much as they can in terms of learning the issues surrounding gender affairs in our country,” Reynolds told The Gleaner.

“It’s a very successful day, and this is the first of what we are hoping to be a bigger, better, and more far reaching programme. This is very inclusive, everybody is on board.

The students are working hard and we’re happy for it.”