Instituting change, creating systems of support and enabling an environment for people to thrive in, is a vision Prof Shahana Rasool has always held for the Department of Social Work and Community Development. She is committed to creating a department whose work feeds into the social fabric of the country. The Department falls within UJ’s Faculty of Humanities and Prof Rasool has had quite a journey within the institution. “I started my undergraduate degree in Social Work at the University of the Witwatersrand. I did my internship at Grantley College in Parktown, which is a school for children with learning needs. In my fourth year I did an internship at the Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development, which is an organisation which deals with Gender-based violence (GBV). I knew when I was at university that I wanted to work in the DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT A LEADER IN DECOLONISATION AND TACKLING SOCIO-ECONOMIC ISSUES
Prof Shahana Rasool, Head of the Department of Social Work and Community Development
ON WHAT PLANS SHE HAS FOR THE DEPARTMENT, PROF RASOOL SAID SHE WOULD LOVE FOR IT TO BE ONE OF THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY, IF NOT THE BEST.
field of gender and feminist work because that’s where my passion lies,” she said. Prof Rasool said she chose the placement with Nisaa because of the important work it does in dealing with domestic violence at many levels in society and was the opening for her career in terms of doing work in the GBV arena, intervention, prevention, activism and research. She then joined an organisation called Centre for Peace Action, which was based in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg and focused its work on community safety. “Even in that job, I did women’s leadership training and was involved in starting up a shelter. Whilst I was there, Nisaa invited me back to coordinate a book on sheltering and violence against women.”
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