Trip to Brazil opens eyes of BSW student to future possibilities

Katina West

     May 7, 2008 - On a recent trip to Brazil led by Labor Studies Assistant Professor Bill Mello, Katina West became a firm believer in a tonic that could improve the world.

     It’s called hope.

     West, an undergraduate in the Indiana University School of Social Work program, is used to seeing lots of people who seem hopeless about participating in decisions that affect their lives. “They feel what’s the use,” West said.

     So, when she saw a flier about Mello’s trip to Brazil to see first-hand how labor unions have joined with other groups to create grass-roots programs to give people a voice in their communities, West decided to go along.

     “I wanted to see what its like to have typical poor, every day working people participating in their government.”

      She was inspired by what she saw during her 10-day visit.  “I saw the faces of destitute individuals that were full of hope and pride,” West wrote.

     West said she saw women leaders in a meeting that generated a campaign that would help women in the community understand their right to be safe and to promote a new law that would put domestic violence violators in prison.

     She also witnessed workers pooling their resources to create co-ops. West explained poor women with sewing and baking skills had formed a co-op that provided steady income and benefits, something on their own they would have been hard pressed to achieve.

     West also witnessed students that were 25 years and older graduate from an elementary school education program. “One participant in the program who is currently employed in a shoe factory stated that before the program she had trouble with spelling and writing, but now she has the confidence to further her education and eventually hopes to become a physical therapist.”

     West realized the programs didn’t just give them training or make it easier for them to make a living, but rather it gave them a voice, a way to be involved in matters that affect their lives.

     The programs “let them be engaged,” she noted. “They should know best what they need for their community and family.”

      “It gives them the power to say, hey, I am responsible for the schools my children go to, that we have good hospitals,” she added

     By having a voice, people had hope and they weren’t just sitting on a log saying, “Oh, this is how my life is.”  Who better than the people experiencing problems to figure out ways to resolve the problem, West realized.

     “If you look at problems and say I will give them medications for A, but you don’t look at the social implications as to why this is the problem and don’t attack it from all sides, it’s going to remain a problem.” People experiencing the problem can attack it ways that those who haven’t experienced the problem might never think of, she said.     “Hope is like the best medicine.”

     Mello has taken students to Brazil for the last five years after coming in contact with a labor education program organized by labor unions there. After talking to the program organizers, Mello thought students from here could benefit by seeing the work they do with social movements in Brazil.

Bill Mello

     The program is a broad movement that brings together labor unions as well as a variety of social movement organizations, from urban to rural and farm organizations, he noted.

      Mello noted the director of the initiative is a social worker, not a labor activist. In one of their stops, the students talked with a deputy mayor in charge of planning. Previously, the man had been president of a local union for years, but is now deciding on all the major social programs in the city.

     One of the key components is how these programs engage people, Mello said. By involving people in the decision-making process, they can better understand what resources are available and thus understand what can and can’t be done. “It’s when they don’t have participation, when things are handed to them, it gets complicated.”

     Students who accompany Mello to Brazil are from a variety of backgrounds including history, labor, anthropology and social work majors, he noted.

     “What they (the students) see is basic day-to-day problem solving, that taking the initiative to change things starts at the very bottom.” By exposing the students to the Brazilian program, Mello hopes they can learn to become open to saying the way things have operated in the past have not worked, so “let’s sit down and collectively figure out another way.”

     “It’s a way of moving in the right direction rather than sitting back and repeating the same mistakes,” Mello said.

     The idea is to show students “how to be a little more courageous, a little more daring rather than stick with the script, to try and think of things differently and approach it as why can’t we do it differently.”

     West came away a believer.

     For her part, it was another step in a learning process that started with the realization that she enjoyed helping people through her church’s outreach programs and came to understand that social work covers all aspects of life. West realized she was suited to become a social worker and joined the university’s BSW program.

      While she has a lot to learn yet, her horizons have already been expanded by her trip to Brazil. “My goal is to do global social work.”

     For more information contact Rob Schneider, Indiana University School of Social Work at 317-278-0303 or at robschn@iupui.edu