IFSW Newsletter
ASIA & PACIFIC REGION

Issue 2, December 2014

This issue includes:
Editorial
News from round-about
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Report from IFAP Regional President, Mariko
KimuraReport from IFSW Regional Member-at-Large,
Rose Henderson
Report on IFSW Asia Pacific Meeting – Melbourne,
9 July 2014
Keynote Address by IFAP President at PASWI 31st
Biennal Convention
Introduction to the Social Workers' Association
Nepal (SWAN)
MASW - Brief News

Upcoming Events in 2015

Editorial
IFSW-AP has come through another eventful andexciting year in 2014. There has been inspiring
stories of social work activities in fields of practiceand in the development of social work education in
the Asia Pacific. We know social workers in Laos,
Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Papua New
Guinea, are striving hard to put professional social
work on the map in their respective countries.

During the Conference on Social Work, Educationand Social Development in Melbourne, IFSW-AP
elected a new line-up of members into the Executive
Committee, as reported by the new Regional
President, Mariko Kimura and the new Regional
Member-at-Large, Rose Henderson. Added to that,
we see a larger representation of members from theAsia Pacific on the IFSW Executive Committee.
Congratulations to everyone!
We take this opportunity to thank John Ang for his
unwavering focus and tireless efforts in leading theRegional Committee for the past six years. One of theoutcomes from his term of office was the move forregional associations to organise smaller gatherings
or workshops focussed on specific issues. This
resulted in the first regional symposium on disastermanagement in Malaysia in 2007. With subsequentIFSW funding for Disaster Management Project,
IFSW-AP was able to organise three workshops on
disaster management. Japan took the lead in looking
further into how social workers could cope withdisasters at a workshop during the 21st Asia-PacificSocial Work Conference of July 2011. PASWI
continued to explore this issue at the second
workshop during the APRC of June 2013, while thefinal workshop was held in Indonesia in January
2014.

Some have succeeded in establishing social work
education programmes from scratch, some are facing
uphill tasks with the lack of social work expertise andfunding. Some are challenged by very difficult
political, economic and social variables, coupled withthe all too familiar issues of poor recognition of social
work as a profession.

John and his team also strove diligently to supportsocial workers in regional countries such as
Indonesia, Iran, Macau, Yemen and Nepal tosuccessfully gain membership into IFSW.

Yet, some have succeeded in forming national
associations and joining the regional fraternity ofsocial workers. Here, we congratulate and welcome
the Social Workers Association of Nepal upon its
inclusion into the IFSW membership, and we lookforward to their active participation and contribution
to regional and global development of social work.

Thank you to all for an eventful year, and have a
Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a restfulholiday!

We wish you well in your continuous contribution
towards the Global Agenda, John!

Reportfrom
IFAP
Regional President
Mariko Kimura, IFAP Regional
President, IFSW 1st Vice President
I would like to express my appreciation to all themember associations of the AP region for supportingme to work as the new regional president. At the
global level, I have been elected as the 1st Vice
President of IFSW at the Melbourne Executive
Committee Meeting. At the global level, I work with
Ruth Stark, IFSW President, Rory Truell, SecretaryGeneral of IFSW, four regional presidents, and Rose
Henderson, Member-at-Large of AP Region. Eva
Ponce-de-Leon, President of the Philippine
Association of Social Workers (PASWI) has been
elected as the global Treasurer. We now have a larger
representation at the global level. Through our(industrious and innovative) work in the AP Region,
we hope to send a unique message from the Asia
Pacific to the rest of the world.
The Asia and Pacific Region being so vast and diverse,
I realise how challenging it is for us to work as a single
region (under IFAP). However, if we truly recognise
and appreciate the history and diversity of so many
cultures and peoples in the region, we should be able
to see how gifted we are with tremendous resources
and possibilities.
I would like to express my warmest welcome to Social
Workers Association of Nepal (SWAN) as a new IFSW
member association. I look forward to working closelywith SWAN to strengthen our relationship.
As for my work with AP member associations, I
attended the 31st Biennial Convention of thePhilippines Association of Social Workers Inc.
(PASWI) held in Manila, October 22-24, as a keynote
speaker. More than 600 participants actively took
part in the programmes focusing on disaster, crisis,and social workers as allies and partners.

Right after Manila, I visited Bangkok and met Dr.
Decha Sungkawan who is 2015 Asia Pacific Social
Work Conference Chair, and Anyamanie Branakan,
President of the Thai Association of Social Workers.
We officially agreed to hold the Joint Regional Social
Work Conference in October next year.

Meeting with Anyamanie, TASW President and TASW members

For the next four years, I would like to work on thefollowing matters:
1. Strengthening of the organisational bases of theregion  Networking among existing member countries(there are 22 member countries as of November
2014) Increasing new member countries.
2. Activities as IFSW Asia Pacific Region
 Promoting further advances of disaster project Asia-Pacific is (one of) the most frequently disasterstricken region. Based on the experiences of ourmember countries that have responded to disasters,
we need to increase the resilience of the region byforming a strong organisational basis that canfunction in case of disasters, working on economic
and financial issues, providing training for social
work intervention, and building the collaborative
system (networks) with governmental and / or nongovernmental organisations.
 Linking with Global Agenda
Under IFSW Global Agenda, we gather and share
information of the activities of each country andmutually support the development of tools (whatkind of tools?) in the region. Specifically, I would liketo take opportunities such as regional conferences
and other gatherings to hold ‘regional forums’ tocome up with various ideas to work on the Global
Agendas in our region.
 Collecting and disseminating regional information
To promote the recognition and significance of the
Asia-Pacific region worldwide, we need to effectively
collect information in our region and actively
disseminate it globally.

Mariko with Eva Ponce de Leon and PASWI members

3. Resources acquisition for the activities
In addition to working on social work tasks in our
region, we need to work collaboratively to seek funds
to encourage and support our activities. In order tostrengthen the workability function of the region,setting up a regional secretariat office is essential.
Finally, on the global level, the IFSW Policy andConstitution are under review by the newly elected
Steering Committee and Executive Committee
members. We are also seeking more strongly how to
generate financial resources for IFSW-Global.
mkimura1951@gmail.com***************************************************IFSW Regional Member-at-Large
Report - November 2014

Members will be familiar with the Global Agenda andthe development of the Global Observatory facilitatedjointly by the IASSW, ICSW and IFSW. The first Global
Observatory Report was launched in Melbourne thisyear. The Global Agenda Observatory is themechanism for monitoring and reporting on theimplementation of the Agenda commitments andcurrently processes to establish the joint regional
observatories are under way. If any member isinterested in being our regional observatory
representative please contact me. The next theme for
the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social
Development is “Promoting the Dignity and Worth of
the Person” with the aim of completing the second
report based on this theme in time for launching inSeoul in 2016. It is hoped that our region will be well
represented in that publication.

Rose Henderson
IFSW Regional Member-at-Large

Firstly, I want to thank member countries for theirsupport of my nomination as Regional Member-atLarge at the elections this year. It is a huge privilege
and also a huge challenge to represent such a rich,diverseandgeographicallylarge
regioninternationally and I look forward to working withyou all. I welcome any thoughts and suggestions about
how we can strengthen linkages and networks acrossour region to facilitate strong regional representationand effective working relationships.

Prof. Abye Tasse presenting 1st Global Report on SW & SD, on
behalf of IFSW-IASSW-ICSW @ Melbourne Conference

The Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association fromNew Zealand, and more recently the Nepal Associationof Social Workers, has recently joined our IFSW
regional family and we welcome these new members
into the fellowship and work of our region.
The joint APASWE and IFSW-AP Regional SubCommittee considering a regional amplification of the
new IFSW definition for social work, continues towork through the many thoughts and ideas about this.
I encourage member countries to provide feedback on
their work during the consultation processes.
It was a privilege to attend with colleagues fromaround the world. I had the pleasure of attending alearning journey to the north-east of the country
which is still recovering from civil war. The Forumprovided important networking opportunities. The
government and people of Sri Lanka welcome
international assistance.
Links have been re-established with the Sri Lankan
Social Work Association which has been invited to reestablish contact with the IFSW Asia Pacific branch.
Sri Lankan social workers welcome contact and visits.

Members of IFSW-IASSW-ICSW on stage with Prof. Abye Tasse

A recent highlight for me has been a visit to Jakarta,
Indonesia to be the Keynote Speaker at the World
Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. Our
Indonesian member Association is strongly involvedin this and whilst there it was great to meet with anumber of social workers and social work students.
My thanks go to Nurul Eka Hidayati and Erna Dinata
for their wonderful hosting and support of me during
my stay in their country. We will complete a morecomprehensive report on this event for the next
newsletter.
I want to also thank Mariko Kimura, our Regional
President for all the work she is doing for our region

and express my sincere thanks for the way she isworking collaboratively with me on many of the issues
for our region.
Rose.Henderson@cdhb.health.nz******************************************************

Report on IFSW Asia Pacific Meeting– Melbourne, 9 July 2014

At the IFSW General Meeting Ruth Stark was elected
as the new IFSW President. Also at that meeting,
Mariko Kimura was elected unopposed as theRegional President and Rose Henderson was elected
unopposed as the Member-At-Large. Both Mariko andRose look forward to working with and serving our
regional members in the coming years. Additionallyfrom our region Eva Ponce de Leon won the election
for the IFSW Treasurer and at the first meeting of the
IFSW Executive Committee, Mariko was elected as theFirst Vice-President of IFSW. All of this means that the
Asia Pacific region has a very strong representation on
the new IFSW executive committee.

John Ang chairing his last meeting as outgoing Regional President

IFSW Asia Pacific Members who were able to travel to
Melbourne gathered together for our regional meetingat the Convention Centre in Melbourne. Businessincluded the regional President’s report summarising
the activities for the year, the financial report andreports from designated positions including ethics,
publication and regional projects. Of special note was
the dissemination of the CD following the completionof the Disaster Project led by Japan.
Suggestions for work to be undertaken in the future
include strengthening the regional structure throughdeveloping some guidelines or standing orders to help
clarify and support our regional committee.

IFSW-AP Members @ IFSW General Meeting, Melbourne University

In addition to Mariko and Rose, the regional
committee elected in Melbourne is Michiko Hirata(Treasurer), Irene Leung (Secretary), Richard Hugman(Ethics representative), Elsie Lee (Publications), Ng
Shui Lai has (Human Rights), Karen Healey, Eva Poncede Leon, Sung-Kyung Kang and Sarima Ruwaida
Abbas.

Other members @ IFSW-AP Regional Meeting

Concern was expressed at the lack of progress frommember countries regarding possible hosting of aregional event in 2015. Some suggestions were madeand have been followed up with more information on
the now confirmed event in Thailand in Mariko’s
Regional President’s report. All members areencouraged to plan to be at this event where a further
regional meeting will also be held.

Mariko Kimura, Eva Ponce de Leon & Teoh Ai Hua @ IFSW BoothAs this was the last meeting for John Ang as Presidentof our region, tributes and a gift of acknowledgement

were presented to him in appreciation of the many
years of service to our region.

2. Enhancement of Human Dignity
3. Maintenance of Environment
4. Enforcement of Human Relations.

Our next meeting will be in Thailand in 2015.

Group of IFSW-AP Members after the Regional Meeting

Happy Closing to PASWI Conference

Reported by Rose Henderson, IFSW-AP Member at
Large

Submitted by Josephine Cruz, PASWI
paswi_1948@yahoo.com*****************************************************************************************************

Keynote Address by IFAP President
at PASWI 31st Biennal Convention

Introduction to the Social Workers'
Association Nepal (SWAN)

22 – 24 October 2014

Prof. Mariko Kimura, fromJapan Women’s University,presentedthedifferent
disasters that struck Japan andpointed out that they too are as
vulnerable as we are in termsof the prevalence of disasterswhether it is man-made or
natural. She cited points of
how to be resilient such as
putting in place organisation and coordination tounderstand and reduce disaster risk, based onparticipation of citizen groups and civil society;assigning a budget for disaster risk reduction andprovide incentives for homeowners, low income
families, communities, businesses and the public
sector; maintaining up to date data on hazards andvulnerabilities; investing in and maintaining criticalinfrastructure that reduces risk; assessing the safetyof all schools and health facilities; applying andenforce realistic, risk compliant building regulations
and land use planning principles; ensuring that
education programs and training on disaster risk
reduction are in place in schools and local
communities; protect ecosystems and natural buffers
to mitigate floods, storm surges and other hazards;
installing early warning systems and emergency
management capacities and hold regular public
preparedness drills; and after any disaster, ensurethat the needs of the affected population are placed at
the center of reconstruction.
She also presented the Global Agenda for Social Workand Social Development which are categorised asfollows:
1. Economic Disparity Correction

SWAN is a national professional association
representing social workers in Nepal, and establishedon June 29, 2014. It is also a member organisation of
the International Federation of Social Workers(IFSW). It is a new organisation which signifies amajor step forward for social work at the national
level. Education in social service was available inearly 1990 in Nepal, but the concept of professionalsocial work education at Bachelor’s degree level wasstarted in late 1996 by some of the professional social
workers. Professional social workers have realisedthat education in this profession is vital for
improvement of social, economic, psychological andspiritual well-being of the deprived and marginalised
individuals and communities. Quality education andpractice, lack of understanding and recognition ofsocial work as profession, lack of well qualified humanresources in different fields of specialised areas, arethe challenges of social work education in Nepal. The
quality of social services in the human service
organisations is also ineffective.

Founding Members of SWAN

SWAN as a national organisation aims to promote
professional social work education by providing

technical support to its members so as to cope withthe problems arising in Nepal’s social development.
SWAN aims to provide technical support to its
members to enhance the quality of social work
education, and to meet the challenges of social
development. SWAN has established the following
objectives:
1. To provide support to academic institutions fordeveloping curriculum standards in social work
education and its promotion.
2. To develop policy advocacy on social development
issues, social security, social policy, social
inclusion and human rights.
3. To conduct research on existing social, economic,
cultural and indigenous social work practice in
Nepal and publish the findings.
4. To establish networks at national and international
level with social work communities and academic
institutions.
5. To work in close collaboration with different socialorganisations for improvement of socio-economic
conditions of marginalised communities.
6. To facilitate an exchange of technology andknowledge with international/regional/ national
institutions.

Malaysian Association of Social Workers Brief News
MASW congratulates its President, Teoh Ai Hua on his
election to the Chair of the CommonwealthOrganisation for Social Work at the COSW Meeting in
Melbourne during the Joint World Conference of July
2014.

Teoh Ai Hua posing with COSW Members at Melbourne Conference***************************************************

Upcoming Events in 2015…
APASWE-IFAP Joint Regional
Conference 2015 – Thailand

Sanitation awareness education in the Bardiya district of Nepal

We are very thankful and excited in becoming amember of IFSW. We are interested to link with social
work organisations at different levels and collaborate
to promote this profession for the establishment of ajust and equitable society. SWAN is exploring hostinga social work and social development conference in2016 in Nepal and is looking for other IFSW members
who may be interested in either co-hosting or
supporting such an event.
Thank you very much.
Founding member of SWAN: Om Krishna Shrestha
President : Dr. Dilli Ram Adhikari
Vice-President : Krishna Sundar Khaitu
Secretary : Samjhana Bhetwal
Treasurer : Baidhya Ghale
To contact SWAN
e-mail: swan.nepal.2014@gmail.com

SocialWork

I made a visit to Bangkok in late October and met with
Dr. Decha Sungkawan, Program Chair of the 2015 Asia
Pacific Social Work Conference Committee. With myvisit to Bangkok, it was officially decided that the IFAP
Regional Conference for 2015 is going to be held
jointly with APASWE. The theme, dates, and the venue
will be as follows:
Theme:
Growth and Crisis - Social Work and Policy Discourses
Sub-Themes:*Social and Economic Liberalisation*Urbanism and Transition*Social Disparities and Inequalities*Poverty and Vulnerability*Environmental Security*At-risk Groups and Social Work Responses*Human Security Discourses*Lessons Learned from the Regions.
Dates: October 21- 24, 2015 with Pre/Post Conference
Workshops
Venue: Dusit Thani, Bangkok, Thailand- IFSW-sponsored Pre-Conference Workshop will beheld, and participation of social workers, local andinternational, will be encouraged.

- IFSW President, Ruth Stark will be invited as Keynote
Speaker.
- IFAP Regional Meeting will be held - venue to beannounced.
In the second conference announcement of APASWE, it
will be officially announced that 2015 Asia-PacificSocial Work conference is to be a joint one and theinformation will also be posted on IFSW website inJanuary, 2015.
Mariko Kimura
IFAP Regional President, IFSW 1st Vice President****************************************************
6th International School Social Workers Conference
10-12 June 2015 – Mongolia
The focus of the Conference will be on promoting childfriendly schools.
Contact Details:
e-mail: info@massw.org
website: www.isswc.massw.org***************************************************The theme of the 19th International Symposium:"Transforming Society: Trends and Models in
Community Leadership and Social Development" deals
with key international social development issues andsocial change at the local, regional, and international
levels. It emphasizes good governance, as well as newand emerging issues in social development requiring
attention. Strong community leadership is needed totackle the problems of an increasingly polarized andtroubled world.
Website: http://www.unisim.edu.sg/ICSD2015
Contact: Dr. Steve Chan
Conference Secretariat: icsd2015@unisim.edu.sg.

IFSW Asia Pacific Regional
Committee
President:
Mariko Kimura (Japan)
Member-at-Large: Rose Henderson (New
Zealand)Secretary:
Irene Leung (Hong Kong)
Treasurer:
Michiko Hirata (Japan)
Members:
Sung-Kyung Kang
(Korea)Karen Healey (Australia)
Eva Ponce de Leon (ThePhilippines)
Sharima Ruwaida Abbas(Malaysia)
Elsie Lee (Publications
Secretary, Malaysia)
Ex-Officios:
Ng Shui Lai (Human
Rights, Hong Kong)
Richard Hugman (Ethics
Representative,
Australia)
Regional Advisor: Justina Leung(Immediate Past
President, Hong Kong)
Editor: Elsie Lee (Malaysia)
Layout: Jodi Johnstone (Australia)
Publisher: Griffith University for IFSW Asia
Pacific Region (Australia)
Note to Contributors:
Please send items, stories and articles
preferably in MS word format as well as
photos to the Editor, Elsie Lee at
elsilee@gmail.com.