http://ebs.cityu.edu.hk:8000/attach/050105/882deA2oUmlzjNqNkF/NoT(7.10.04).doc
http://ebs.cityu.edu.hk:8000/attach/050112/1464rRtQz2X5J9VAc1/NoT(14.10.04).doc
<< written for my SS dept newsletter NOT, really kill my life, wrote so many many many hrs, haha >>
SW placement in Mainland
Odie, Lee Hoi Yin
50414002
BSSSW Year 3
When everyone could only have two social work placements in their bachelor degree, I, however, could have three totally. With fortune, I got a chance to work in a social welfare agency in Beijing, and even in Xining, China.
Actually, I struggled a lot to decide what to do in my 3-month long summer vacation. Going to Taiwan with the cross-cultural exchange program organized by our department? Or going to Beijing for an internship with the Career Centre, SDS? With all the pros & cons, I finally decided to give up the chance to go on a 3-week trip with my SS classmates, and chose to go to Beijing for an 8-week internship instead. I made the decision because an internship is different from an exchange that I would have more free time on my own. I knew the SS program would do a lot of planning beforehand and the group would always stay together as a whole during the trip. However, I was always looking forward to explore a place on my own, go wherever I want, and do whatever I want. Actually, the internship organized by the career centre was mainly participated by the BBA students, it was always rare to have SS students in it. Then I became the only one from the SW discipline. As I mentioned in the interview, different disciplines always have their commonality and differences because knowledge is somehow interrelated. I believe that I would still benefit from the internship even though it had nothing related with the SW field. Finally, I was placed in a 50-year old Chinese arts & crafts department store in Beijing. Everyone, including myself, was surprised that I would still go on a trip to do sales, not only unrelated with my major, it also has nothing to learn for a U student. However, as the internship was only a means for me to explore the place, what the means was wouldn’t be very important.
During the mid-stage of my internship, the teacher of the trip suddenly introduced a local welfare agency to me as he had got to know the co-founder of the agency by chance, who was a Cantonese as well. I kept the address and decided to visit it someday when I had time.
With the address, I looked for the social welfare agency located in the traditional hutong (胡同) in Beijing. To be honest, my first motivation was just to visit the agency and had some understanding on how a welfare agency runs in mainland. However, when the agency manager and the social worker gave me a detailed introduction and answered all my curious questions, I suddenly had a thought to work as a volunteer there to explore more about the agency and experience their life. With the urge for volunteers, they also welcomed me too. Then I started my half volunteer and half placement student in this agency, Hui Ling. (慧靈智障人士社會服務機構)
http://www.hlgz.org/ I allowed myself to work there from 830am to 3 pm from Tuesday to Thursday, as well as doing my department store internship at the same time.
Actually, GZHL (Guangzhou Hui Ling廣州慧靈) was founded in 1990 first, and BJHL (Beijing Hui Ling) was founded 10 years after. With the helping of a British social worker from Hong Kong, it wasn’t surprised that BJHL could run pretty smooth in 4 years time and is adapting an updated modal, a community based model. Unlike the traditional running mode in GZHL, the service users here has an open setting, they are always encouraged to integrate into the community and to hang out in the neighborhood.
With the good location in a hutong which is next to the Forbidden City, BJHL has made the best use of the community resources. It cooperates with an international travel company to promote a “hutong tour” (胡同遊) for the overseas tourists. As the travel company mainly greet tourists from all over the world, visiting BJHL has become one of the main attraction in their tour to explore the Chinese culture and the local life of mainland residents. BJHL has rented a “si he yuen” (四合院) as the daily activity centre, the MR (mentally retarded) service users come over everyday to learn life skills which is useful for them to integrate into the society. As BJHL is adopting a community based model, our clients would not just stay inside, they would go out to learn to buy things, travel on buses, learn to use computers in the local public library, etc. Moreover, the agency allowed them to learn to earn money by teaching them the skills in performing traditional Chinese show, and doing different Chinese handicrafts and painting. Therefore, the clients can perform what they learnt when the tourists visit, and get some income when the tourist purchased the products they made.
As far as I know, Hui Ling was actually one of the famous social welfare agency in the community as there were quite a lot of local SW students doing placement there. There was even a Hong Kong social worker went over to be the fieldwork supervisor in one of the U. Even though there weren’t any social workers with recognized qualifications, I tried my best to learn the most by seeing it as a formal placement as I would have in HK. I used what I learnt from my first placement to give myself a better framework to analyze the agency, its service delivery, and the community in different aspects. It was really a great experience for me to have my SW placement in Beijing, although it wouldn’t be officially recognized in HK, especially without any approval supervision.
As the internship program was supposed to end at the end of July, I had to struggle again on whether or not to give up the airflight ticket in order to stay behind on my own. At last, my 欲望on staying in Beijing has won. I knew it would be an invaluable chance for me to have a SW placement there, I decided to stay behind by myself while everyone else went back to HK. I gave myself three more weeks to learn as many as I could, because the four weeks beforehand were insufficient as I had to attend both internships at the same time. Both my body and mind were so tired that really lowered my efficiency. When I decided to stay behind, I no more had to attend the department store one, I could just concentrate on the SW one, then I took it as a formal internship and set a contract with the agency. Finally, I set three goals, to open a group for the MR clients, to organize an advance training course for the agency volunteers, and to write a “hutong tour” (胡同遊) introduction handbook for the foreign tourists.
I think I was doing a very right decision to stay behind in Hui Ling. At the end of my second week, another invaluable opportunity came to me. I met a German priest from HK who had been volunteering in Hui Ling for 10 years. He told me that XNHL (Xining Hui Ling西寧慧靈) had an urge for human resources as it only opened for a year but got some new arrangements those months. Although he had already arranged four staff from GZHL to start the job in Xining, he still needed more manpower and new ideas to run the branch more smoothly. Without even knowing exactly where the location was, I recommended myself to go on this business trip to help. Actually, I knew that I might not even have the ability to help, besides that I could only have three weeks to stay there. As XNHL was totally in a different stage as BJHL, I think it would be another invaluable opportunity for me to know how a new social welfare agency got started in a community, especially it was a long way far in the west. Of course I knew it was only for my own benefit, but I promised that I would try my best to help and gave advice with the experience in HK. To be honest, I thought it was worth for me to pay for my train fee in order to explore XNHL; however, Priest Hui was so nice that he promised to let me go and would pay for my trip.
It seems that the SW market in mainland is opening; however, the salary has always been the most concerning problem for people from HK to consider. Although Shanghai is the only city in mainland with approval SW qualification, this profession still has a very long way to go in the country. When everything is still in its beginning stage and not much experience could be referred to, SW profession in mainland seems to be a new opportunity for exploring and trying out new things.
To be honest, working with MR clients was always my final choice if ranking all types of service users because somehow I just had a feeling that I wouldn’t have the patience to work with them. After working with this type of client for 2 months in the trip, I wouldn’t say I have gained a big interest in it, but at least I wouldn’t mind if there is a chance someday. 时
