What is Social Service? It is an organized system of helping every individual and group to attain satisfying condition of living. In essence, it is a service rendered to alleviate human hardship. It is the cardinal responsibility of government to offer social services to the citizens in order to alleviate their problems or improve their welfare conditions. As much as government has the obligation of alleviating the citizens hardship, it cannot do it alone. There is nowhere in the world where government alone offers social service to the people. Any individual or organization that has the interest and capacity to assist the people in meeting their needs are allowed to do so in a well-organized manner.
Social service is as old as the history of human existence. From time immemorial, human beings had been facing social problems within the family, the clans, the community and the religious bodies. The concept of social service was entrenched by the philosophical saying of “love your neighbor as yourself”.
The two major religions in our society have well-spelt out provision and process of giving to the needy in the form of tithe in the Christian religion and zakat and sadaqat in Islamic religion. These provisions are directed at alleviating the hardship of those in need. They are done as expected in an organized manner. The true concept of tithe and zakat was developed as a manifestation of the fact that certain people will always be in need of basic necessities of life and tried to discourage begging which was seen as an act that lowers the dignity of human person. As much as possible and in line with religious teaching begging should be discouraged in our society in order to sustain human dignity. Equally, if you want to give gifts or charity, it must be done in a dignifying manner to sustain the honour of the needy.
We may need to note some important landmarks in the history of human society that point to the fact that Social Service is as old as human existence. The idea of organized Social Services had long been recognized and it grew with religious bodies. These religious bodies teach benevolence and charity with the examples of alms giving to the poor. When the society became more complex, the process of giving alms to the poor and the needy have to be professionalized. With professionalism introduced in the process of alms giving, there emerged a profession called Social Work.
Social work, as it is known, is a helping profession and the practitioners are well trained and prepared to render social services in a professional and more organised process to help the needy. The profession is clearly guided by ethics and principles which must be religiously conformed with. Giving of alms to the poor is very voluntary by individuals. Any individual that so wishes to assist the poor has a right to do so with or without adopting a professional procedure. However, such individuals that offers help in an unprofessional way are referred to as “do gooders” and not Social Workers. They simply love to do good to the people in a way that pleases them. The risk of doing it in an unprofessional way often result to creating more problems than what was attempted to solve. Such problem may be:
• not actually meeting the needs of the poor,
• creating additional problems to the poor
• lowering the dignity and the intrinsic worth of the poor.
• neglect of those who are truly in need but assisting those who are not truly in need.
• not reaching the poorest of the poor
The prevalence of the above listed problems is high if unprofessional approach is used to select the beneficiaries and carry out charity giving exercise.
This bring to mind the unpleasant events recorded in December 2024 in Ibadan, Abuja and Okija which were characterized by scrambling and stampede that led to the death of many innocent children. The unpleasant effect of the stampede was a great tragedy which was avoidable if the program had been given a desirable approach of giving out charity through the use of professional Social Workers.
The Ministry of Women Affairs that has responsibility of care for women and children who are the most vulnerable groups in the society is expected to be predominantly staffed by Social Workers. The ministry should not shy away from its onerous responsibility of rendering social service to the people. It should therefore not fail to intervene appropriately to any elaborate charity giving programs in the society.
This therefore calls for the formulation of appropriate policy to guide charity giving exercises. This charity given exercise will be done with honour and dignity to the beneficiaries. Government should discourage gathering of large number of the poor for charity giving in an undignifying manner particularly with those carrying out their charity giving exercise with wide publicity.
Government should encourage charity givers to approach the Ministry of Women Affairs for proper guidance and support from the professional social workers. Charity giving exercises will be more spiritually rewarding to the givers and effectively reach those truly in need if they are channeled through Ministry of Women Affairs, Churches, Mosques and Community Development Associations.
The role of social workers in charity giving exercise is very important and it cannot be overlooked or trivialised. Social workers have great roles to play on issues concerning children and women who are the most vulnerable groups in the society. This is particularly so in our society where poverty is on its severe ravage.
In developed countries where poverty is not as severe as we are experiencing in Nigeria, the role of Social Workers is given a pride of place which enhances the provision of welfare services to the people unlike in Nigeria where the profession is not given due recognition. Social Work is a noble and essential profession designed to alleviate various human problems. The government should appreciate the importance of Social Workers and give them a pride of place if it truly wants to alleviate poverty in our society.
Iskil Yussuf is a social worker and child rights advocate. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Child Development and Concern Foundation (CDCF) where indigent children are assisted with their educational needs.