Social Work Spotlight - International Episode 18: Kgomotso (Botswana & Germany)

Episode Date: April 25, 2026

In this episode I speak with Kgomotso, a social worker from Botswana currently residing in Germany, with qualifications in both Social Work and African Studies. She has experience working as a project support officer focused on orphans and vulnerable children-related policies and programmes, working to strengthen social protection systems and improve service provision by social workers in Botswana, and has interests in social policy reforms, informal social protection and inclusive development.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Thandika Mkandawire’s Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ecPI09EAAAAJ&hl=enJimi Adesina’s Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZJPKVjYAAAAJ&hl=enDolly Ntseane’s Research Gate page - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dolly-NtseaneSabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K_TTLasAAAAJ&hl=enFrantz Fanon’s Brittanica biography - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frantz-FanonThis episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D5IvZqszYZcdo2CJmfbmPRRsOwgxwuav4HV4pthDUoI/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

Before beginning, I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the countries of guests featured in this podcast and acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. I pay my respects to the First Nations people, the cultures and the elders, past, present and emerging. Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode, with a 12-month focus on social workers around the world as of August 2025. I'm your host, Yasmin Lupus, and today's guest is Komoto, a social worker from Botswana, currently residing in Germany with qualifications in both social work and African studies. She has experienced working as a project support officer focused on orphans and vulnerable children-related policies and programs, working to strengthen social protection systems and improved service provision by social workers in Botswana. She also formed part of a working group for the establishment of Botswana professional. social work council that would contribute to the regulation of the profession. Komoto has interests in social policy reforms, informal social protection and inclusive development.

Hi Komoto, thank you so much for meeting with me today coming on to the podcast. I'm very much looking forward to having to chat with you about your experience in social work, both in Botswana, Kenya and now in Germany. Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to see how the conversation unfold. both. Yeah, I always start with what brought you to social work in the first place. When did you get started? I think my journey to social work was quite premature, I would say, because it's not something that I always thought I would do growing up. It's not something that I sort of, when you

are a baby being asked, what do you want to do growing up? It's not something that came up. I think the gap year between high school and university, that's when I started to think about social work, look it up. mainly because my family was trying to push me towards going into nursing, and I knew that I don't want to do nursing. I don't want to deal with a lot of burden that comes with nursing. So the other option that seemed more feasible was social work. And in my head, I was like, I don't want to do anything that has to do with mathematics. So when I did my application, I had social work at the top of my list. And then I had accounting, I think, and some business course.

I had three options and my first choice was really social work. But then I did another application for nursing just because I wanted to make my mom happy. And it was crazy because the nursing school got back to me before the other social work school could get back to me. And I had to forego sort of take a gamble. Like what if the university of Boston did not get back to me regarding social work? What was I going to do after declining the next work? a missing offer. But I really knew that I want to do this. I was really excited. I think I saw myself as an empath. I would say, I think looking at my personality, I was like, this is something

I could do the best because I think I consider myself to be very good at dealing with people in that sense. So that's how I landed in social work. You were telling me offline that the bachelor degree in Botswana is very general. So you had to go through a lot of generic subjects. At what point during that process did you really get the opportunity to see what social work might be like? The first classes were like ranging from economics, laws, statistics, 101, psychology, just a whole lot of background or other introductory courses. And I got to realize how multifaceted social work is. But we had it a course. that was like introductory to social work.

So they were sort of basically explaining the social work landscaping, Botswana, how it works, what are we going to do after we finish our degree in four years. And I would say I sort of got a glimpse of what I really got myself into. And it was during this time that I was like, I think I might have made the wrong choice, mainly because I want to say this in the best possible positive way. Like our lectures were sort of giving us the reality and trying to explain to us what we should expect when we get on the ground.

And I sort of got to realize that social work in Botswana is mainly misunderstood. There's a lot of misconceptions about what people do. Even when I was telling my mates maybe outside classroom like, oh, I'm doing social work, I'm doing this. There was this sort of negative connotation that came with the problem. profession and I couldn't really understand why. And before I could even give myself an effort to understand why that is, I sort of immediately thought, you know, I want to change my profession. I want to change my courses. I was really thinking to go into social sciences, maybe economics, with

psychology or something like that. I was really ready to pivot and I had already even began the process of pivoting. It's just that my scholarship was not that flexible to allow me to do that. And is it similar to Australia where we have a lot of theory in the first part of the course and then the second part we do a lot of practical and what were those practical experiences for you while you're studying? Okay. So we have like two practicals.

We have one right after we finish our second year where you get to choose any place that like sort of place is social work to do your practicals. Yes. So this is where you really get. to mesh the theory with the practice, even though it's still early on into the four-year course, but they really tried to make sure that we have at least two practical periods. It's like three months where we really get to get a feel of the profession. So my first choice was a GBV center, and it was really at this point that I realized that I am not going to go into the practical side

of social work. The clinical side of social work, yeah. So it's like a GBV centre. They offer counselling. They offer like they sort of place, gender-based, violence, victims into safe houses and stuff. They deal with the police

to make sure cases go through. And my very first case was an interesting case. The victim in this case was a minor. And I think it was during this period. that I've got to realize how vast the social work profession is in Botswana.

For example, we do have counselling classes, but because it's too pegged, we don't really go into details of the counseling practice or like you get to really hone your counseling skills and stuff. So I was like, oh, I'm still a second student, and this is the case that is in front of me, is this something that I really want to go into? I think just to give you a brief background,

maybe of how social work is in the practical sense in Botswana. We have clinical social work. This is where you do your counseling. This is where maybe you work in hospitals. You deal with rehabilitation issues. And then we have community development. This is where now you deal with the community projects and all those kind of things, doing a lot of youth work.

And then we now have the social policy aspect, which is also matched with research, I would say, where now you are sitting in a position to influence any policies that guide the profession or sort of deal with anything social protection related, if I may say, or social provisioning related. So it was in this period that I got to realize that I cannot do all of this. I think my brain would rather I do a more focused sort of career. And I was like, okay, since then I was like, okay, I think I'm going to go into the policy side, I'm not sure if I'm interested in the counseling side. But I think the

positives of this whole generic interdisciplinary approach of social worker in Botsona is that like at least it gives you options and you get to be exposed to a whole lot of skills, a wide range of skills and disciplines and all those kind of things. Like if I was to look at a social worker from Botsana, I would say, oh my God, this person is carrying a whole suitcase full of a a lot of skills, right? To maybe where I specialize from year one you get. I think that's the positive side of it. But then again, it's a matter of preference.

Like, do you want to carry the whole suitcase of skills? Or do you want to be like more focused and like more channeled towards what you really want? And it's a lot to expect a student, especially on your first placement, to be taking such responsibility. What support did you have through that? Did you have a good supervisor who was there for you? Thank God there was like, for the first three sessions,

I wasn't allowed to see the client alone. I had another senior social worker who was sort of taking me through the process and like allowing me to talk to the minor in their presence. And if I'm stuck, they sort of take over and it was like just a good synage and good supervisory relationship. And then with the report writing, If I have to see the police, they are there to help me and make sure that I've covered all the bases. So it was sort of a hands-on supervisor relationship.

Yeah. And then did you get to choose something more policy or research-based for your second placement? So for my second placement, I thought I could get a more policy-like sort of placement. But unfortunately, there weren't many responses in terms of that. And I think at that time, I really didn't know what we are expected to do. Because I remember I went with my friend to go to the ministry and ask them like, okay, I want to get placement here. Where do I go and stuff?

But the way they explained, the process was a bit long. And at the time I had to, like the time for the placement had already started. Like, you would have to get approval from the ministry and all those. There was a lot of bureaucracy and red tape because now I want to go to the highest level of social work, I would say, and it was not that possible. And I eventually ended up being at a Red Cross, a place for Red Cross. That's where I did my second placement. But I would say this time around, it was less chaotic. It was more on the community development side of things. Because we were working with young people. They had their own projects. And my role was to oversee those projects, for example,

gardening projects and all those kind of things. Yeah, that sounds similar to Australia, the Red Cross have quite a lot of projects and they do a lot of research and community-based things, not just the practical support. So I think that's probably a good compromise for the second one. Yes. And once you graduated, what was the next step for you? How did you continue to build experience? So like I had already mentioned that I think since here too, I had already decided I'm going into social policy. At the moment, I didn't know how I'm going to do it. I had just told myself that this is the area I'm going into. So two weeks prior to my graduation, we had this lady come to give us a talk about life after school. It was organized by one of our lectures to try to ensure that we are

like prepared to face the world. So she was like talking about the current project she's working on and I was like, this is what I want to do. So immediately after my graduation, I had already started working at a national level office where. now they are trying to revisit social protection policies. Those are the policies that sort of dictate what social workers would do, how much budgeting goes into social welfare, the kind of programs that social workers implement, do social workers get training, sort of in-service training,

all those kind of things. So I got this role to be a project support officer for quite some time, and I did it for really a long time. I thought it was going to be like, sort of a temporary thing while I wait to get a real job. But it sort of ended up taking a bit longer than I had expected. And it was really nice to sit from that position where I have the chance to sort of advocate for what I want to see in the profession in that sense and drive policies that could really

improve the profession because it was always about trying to improve or strengthen the social work profession or social work systems in that manner. And was the role advertised as a social work role? Because when I started working, it wasn't a social work role. I just kind of made it a social work role because of my interest and background. And that's been the case for most of my career. So I'm curious as to how they would have conceptualized that within your context. Okay. I think for my supervisor or boss, she was like sort of working as a consultant, right, for an international organization seconded at the Department of Social Work. So the job I got was sort of like, hi, what are you doing? What is the project? And she was like,

oh, I need an assistant. So I would say it wasn't obviously advertised as a social work post, I would say. And I think at the time, it could have been advertised as an admin job. It could have been any administrative job, project management job, sort of, but it wasn't spelled out rightly as a social work profession. So I think there are some of the things that exist on the ground in the sense that like there are so many things given the suitcase of skills that I told you about. Like there are so many things that we could really fit into. And a lot of times because of the high unemployment rate in Botswana, we find ourselves scattered all over doing a whole lot of things that maybe if we were to sit down and go over them, we would realize that, oh, I think this is a

social work role. And this is now where I think we talked offline about the identity crisis that exists in the social work profession. When we go into practice now, there is nothing like licensing, there's nothing like registration of if I'm starting as a level entry, junior level entry social worker. There's nothing like, oh, you need to be registered somewhere. The profession is not that regulized and there are no bodies that ensure who is a social worker and who's not a social worker. The role is not defined. Even the social work role is not that clearly defined. So you find that a lot of people who maybe, for example, if they feel like, oh, I have a good heart, I'm a philanthropist, they can easily call themselves a social worker because there is not

those structures in the ground to make sure that the profession is sort of clearly defined in the practical sense. So I would say that the jobs are not advertised. Okay, of course there are jobs that maybe would say we need a social worker, but oftentimes adverse would be like we need a case manager. We need a child officer or something, child welfare officer. It's not necessarily a social worker. It's maybe with the government, because the government is the largest employer in Botswana, I would say, especially for the social work profession. So there, of course, they would, be like we need 10 social workers. But even there, it's not clear as to which social work am I going to do. Am I going to do community development? Am I going to do child protection?

Am I going to do elderly care? It's not really defined per se. That's the scenario about the social work profession in Botswana, I would say. Sure. Are you still in touch with your fellow students that went through the program with you? And is their experience similar? Do you think in terms of where they ended up? Yeah. So we have what I would call non-formal structures that social workers in Buzana are trying to like sort of self-organize themselves, given the challenges that I talked about of lack of regulation, lack of bodies that oversee the profession and ensure that everything is done according to the book. So we have what we call, it's like a social workers Association. So everyone who has graduated with a social work degree or diploma, they can

affiliate themselves with this association. So this is where now we have WhatsApp groups where opportunities are shared conversations that relate to social workers sort of held. And when we look at these conversations that social workers are having, usually they have like what we call annual meetings. They would have an annual association meetings. somewhere, like a venue would be selected and everyone would come, those who can afford to come would come. And when they do this platforms, they try to address all the concerns that affect both employed social workers and unemployed social workers. So it is through this platforms that we get to realize that we are really experiencing similar problems. There are a lot of unemployed young

people. So for example, from my class, the only people that have gotten employment, probably those that went into the military. And even when they go into the military or maybe working with the Botswana prisons, they get to be deployed in different prisons and provide support to prisoners. So when you look at this, you get to realize that,

like, the only way of getting employment is through going to other professions, being a soldier, social work. So we really have similar concerns regarding this kind of things. We have others that have gone to join the police service. But then when we ask them like, okay, as you go into the police, that's your skill matter, that's your social work skill matter, because obviously the police have cases where, for example,

minors, gender-based violence cases, cases that concern child abuse. So the question is, do you get engaged as a social worker to sort of provide your skill that a regular police officer would not have? And then they're like, no, we just do the general police. police work. There's nothing like a specialized police officer who's dealing with gender-based violence cases, for example. So they may not identify as a social worker within that role even. Now they identify as a police officer because it's what is bringing food to the table. Yeah, wow. That's really disappointing on many levels, I guess, in the sense that you go to all

this effort. You've been in four years studying, training to do something that is, I mean, it's not that it's not taken seriously. It's just that it's not acknowledged, I guess, or respected for the training that you've gone through. It's under-explored. It's really under-explored because when you look at the statistics of people who have not been employed, I think the last time I checked, when I check into the government hiring, the last group of social workers that graduated that were hired was around 2012, 2013. So this means we have graduates from 2014, 20 to date that are just roaming the streets, possibly working jobs that are not trained for.

So all these kind of things are really concerned. It goes to show you how much potential there is. If I think back during COVID-19, we got to realize that indeed the government needs social workers. It's just that there are these issues of freezing employment and all those kind of things because of the current economic landscape. But when you really look at the situation in Botsona, you would realize that it would have been better

if a lot of social workers were really deployed. We have a high number of feminism. We have a high number of gender-based violence. And there are a lot of conversation. There's a lot of discourse as to what can the government do? What next steps should we take? But the question is we have people who are trained to deal with these kind of things roaming the streets.

And what does that say about the same? seriousness of the government when it comes to addressing social, economic issues that affect Botswana, in that sense. Does the government see the role social workers could play when it comes to addressing such issues? How did you then look into a master's degree? Tell me about how that eventuated

and what your focus was. So when I was doing my work, my role involved, we were trying to assess the effectiveness of social protection systems. teams in Bozana. We were looking into trying to see if the social welfare or the services that are put in place to sort of protect vulnerable groups, particularly offense and vulnerable children, are really effective? Are they reaching the intended beneficiaries and all those kind of things?

And during that project, I got to realize that there's really a lot of systematic issues that sort of hinder social workers from being effective or really reaching their full potential to provide social welfare in Botswana. So looking at this, I was like, hmm, I think I am more interested now to go into research. I think I want to find myself in a position where I can speak with authority to such issues, sort of advise the government, and I knew that this would require me to again to further my studies. I'm not sure if I really wanted to go for a master's in social work at the time. I wanted a master's in social policy. I was like, okay, I want to be very specific. And an opportunity came. It presented itself. And I think also it was now four years later after

working, after having worked in that project for like four years. I was like, I think it's time for for some sort of personal development. It's high time. I really elevated my profession in that sense, like myself professionally. So I found myself doing a master in African studies. And it was just a full scholarship by the European Union. So the master's involved three universities. So I was to go to the university in Portugal, Germany and France.

And eventually I've completed my thesis in Germany, where I'm currently residing. But when I reflect back to see if I have pivoted really far away from the profession, I would say I am still trying to find links. I think everything that I've done, everything that has led up to this moment, goes back to my basic profession, which is social work. I think I skipped a step, actually, because you've worked in Kenya as well. So tell me about your work in Kenya.

was it within that four-year period between the bachelor and the masters? Actually, for Kenya, my instinct in Kenya was actually for my master's. It was my fieldwork for my master's. So we didn't keep a step. So the master's I was doing was sort of interdisciplinary. It's like European interdisciplinary master in African studies. So basically what happens is we have different students coming from different disciplines. We had people coming from tourism, heritage.

We had people coming from international relations, law, so many backgrounds. And it was up to you to decide your specialization came from your choice of thesis, your last research project. So when deciding on my project, I always knew that I want to do something related to social protection slash social work. And we were not allowed to study our own countries. If you did, you wouldn't get your field work. allowance and all those kind of things.

So I had to choose another country. And I was like, I think Kenya sounds like a perfect empirical study site, mainly because Kenya and Bozona share a similar historical background where they were colonized by the British, so they speak English. And I just felt like, okay, I am going to do Kenya. I am going to look at social protection, but now focusing in Kenya. So my topic was now looking into trying to rethink social assistance using a community-based approach, which is now my current area of interest.

And I don't know how I can say it ties to social work, but there is a connection. There is a connection. Maybe if I have time to explain more into what I'm working on right now, you would see the connection. So that's how I ended up in Kenya. but I wasn't working with social workers per se. I was still at the national level of things. Like I was working with the ministry. Yeah.

So it was more high level than on the ground social work. And I've got to realize that social work in Botswana is not practiced the same way as in Botswana, for example. When you look at vulnerable communities in Kenya, I realize that, for example, in Botswana, for someone to qualify for social safety nets, the assessment is done by the social worker. But in Kenya, they have a community-based approach,

participatory approach, where they have leaders of the community, volunteers, going into the community, identifying vulnerable people, and then they go through the means testing process where now we are trying to see if you are eligible, and then you qualify and you get your cash transfers.

So I would be really interested. to go deep into how social work is practiced in Kenya, but I got the sense that they're not as involved in generic roles as compared to Budzana, I would see. So were you working more on an executive or management level? Yes. Okay. And did you find that there was a good connection, I guess, or synergy?

Or do you feel like there was a disconnect in terms of the people who were making decisions versus what needed to be happening on the ground? I think there's a huge disconnect. And from the findings that I got, there's really fragmentation. There's a lot of working in silos, kind of. And while they have a good structure, I couldn't really place social workers and try to see where they feed into the structure in terms of practice, in terms of how they are engaged.

You get, I couldn't place them. And I'll make a surprise that I left without even meeting a social worker in Kenya, you get. Because there are people who sort of get this post at the executive level, even if it's admin work, a lot of them you'd find that they have background in social work. For example, the head of department maybe for child protection services is most likely a social worker in that sense. Then in Kenya, I think maybe because it wasn't really the focus of my study, I didn't find out that much, but I got that sense. Yeah.

But it sounds like that's a similar thing to the Botswanan context where social workers are working, but they're not necessarily identified, acknowledged, recognized for the skills and the experience they have. They're working generically, which further exacerbates the problem of these social workers who are going through the course and then having job insecurity. or uncertainty around what their options are. Yeah. And I think just to add on, like, the project I was working on,

a lot of requirements was that there is stakeholder engagement. So for every program idea or other policy that has been designed, the expectation is that all stakeholders are engaged. And there were always efforts to engage social workers, but it was really hard. So maybe I forgot to explain how the governance structure is in Botswana. So for example, we have the ministry and it sort of oversees everything. And it's like the ones that call the shorts, right?

But in that structure, we also have a sort of a decentralized system where there is now local management, local government. And for each district, like the ministry gives each district. district budget to carry out all the social work-related roles projects in that manner. So there was always a disconnect between these two structures, the local structures and the high-level ministry structures sort of. So, for example, when we try to organize this meeting, the process of just getting the availability of social workers that are on the ground was quite stressful. and mainly because social workers are overwhelmed.

There's a lot of strategy of staff. We have issues of limited resources, for example, one social worker, you'll find that is covering at least 10 villages and she has to use one car to do her assessment in all these 10 villages under a limited period of time. So when you call the social worker and you're like, we have a meeting in the capital city, do you mind coming through? They are like, I cannot leave my client.

it's hanging. So those kind of things, you see the disconnect is really huge. Even in the social policy making process, I think even that engagement is not meeting the standard that it should. It's not explored to that full extent. Yeah. Well, you started to talk a little bit then about what led from the masters to where you are now. So maybe this is a good time to elaborate on that. Okay. So when we talk social work, when we talk social welfare, we always think of certain services, certain acts. I am currently working on a project that is focused on informal social protection. So the whole basis of my project is that social welfare in African context did not start yesterday

when we started to see social protection, when we started to see cash transfers as influenced by the World Bank. So I am trying to look into other various actors of social protection that exist other than the state and maybe the labor market, maybe your NGOs. So I'm looking into how communities protect themselves against vulnerabilities, against shocks. So my main focus was to try to assess the effectiveness of cash transfers in Kenya. and one of the key findings was that while there are cash transfers and while the government is doing its level best to provide social welfare, it remains limited because of financial constraints because of a lot of implementation challenges like I have mentioned, social welfare providers being understaffed and all those kind of things. Because of this society or many African societies tend to look within themselves and try to sort of,

sort of come up with structures of protecting themselves. We have, for example, what in Kenya they call Chamaas. It's like rotating, saving groups where people come together to pool financial resources. And for example, if maybe you are short, this month we would give you money. Next month is another person. So it's like rotational in that sense. I think we would call it simply crowdfunding. We have other structures like burial societies.

We have family structures, we have kinship-based sort of type of protection where if a child loses her mom, we know that the aunt would take over, sort of adopt them. But all this stems from culture. They stem from the spirit of Ubuntu. They stem from oneness. It takes a village to raise a child. And I think, well, based of my research and what I've been working on over time, I've gotten to realize that when we are talking social welfare in the African context, we tend to leave this part out. We tend to leave collective action.

We tend to leave community approaches to welfare that have always existed even before colonization. And I am really trying to look into how we can try to at least have empirical evidence, have these structures well documented, have long-term data that can help guide policies, because there are other scholars we've really tried to see how this two can be integrated. For example, when we are talking climate change, we are trying to see how communities can really come through for each other. And I think this still goes back to social work. Like, I think there isn't why we have social work years as a profession. Some call it a helping profession.

But we don't realize that when we are talking welfare, there are so many things that shape welfare. according to different contexts. Like the social work that we find in Botswana is probably different to the social work that we find in Australia in that sense. And while we are trying to move towards standardizing the profession, it is also important to really be aware of different contexts and that way we could achieve sort of inclusive social welfare, I would say. So that's what I'm working on, working towards doing research in those areas

because they get forgotten a lot, mainly because it's like indigenous knowledge and all those kind of things. A lot of Western biases when we look at the epistemic background of what should be formal, what should not be formal, what should get standardized or what should get recognized based on who said what. So it's kind of the thing that I'm really looking into. And when I look back into the context of Botswana, this thing really ties to social work. It ties to what we have been taught, the kind of social work that is being taught in Botswana,

where we are taught to sort of see people for who they are, ensure that while we deal with clients, we are not dealing with people who don't have the capacity to sort of bounce back from whatever they're going through. I don't know, what is it called? Is it self-actualization? Yeah. There's a social work term like that, that we don't see a client as someone who doesn't have the capacity to sort of be resilient or, or like survive what they have been through or like get themselves out of the situation. So when we help a client, we don't give them the fish,

we try also to teach them how to fish. So all these kind of things, it really goes back into recognizing the existing structures or social capital that is already there and how we can leverage it to ensure that people are empowered. At the end of the day, we are really trying to empower vulnerable people, marginalised communities.

And if we cannot work with what they already have, then we have failed. So that's how all that I'm doing really ties back to the social work profession, I would say. Yeah. So it's about that agency and capacity building as much as anything. Yeah. But it sounds as though a lot of what's taught or has been taught in Botswana is coming from that Western or colonial perspective because perhaps the profession is formally not as, I don't know, maybe there's not. as much of a professionalisation of social work or it's a newer concept or something that's

it doesn't have a significant history even though informally people have been doing this for generation centuries. How do you anticipate your work then? Let's say in a perfect world, you're able to do the research you want to do and you're able to bring that back to your own context, to the African context, to your local welfare or social welfare supports. How will that matter in terms of, are there a lot of people with PhDs, with Masters, or will you kind of be trailblazing in that sense locally? Oh, it's an interesting one. I think the other day when we were talking offline, I had mentioned the disconnect that exists with the academic side of social work and the practical side of social work. So you get to realize that we go through

class social work. I think in Botswana you can only get the degree from one university, which is the University of Botswana. So a lot of us, a lot of social workers have mostly passed through same professors, right? And it was a fairly new profession. It was very new, I think. Maybe as far as as maybe 2004, I don't want to be that specific because I'm not sure. But it's just something that was, I would say if we are talking about when social work emerged across the world, maybe in the western side, compared to Bots, I would say the profession is fairly new. And this disconnect kind of makes it hard to see a collaborative opportunity in terms of how you can influence the profession. So for example, I don't want to be pessimistic, but if I was to really

continue with my work, I am most likely to publish articles, I am most likely to do the research, but it would be very chances of it getting absorbed and influencing policy, maybe influencing the practical side of things is very low. So while I am very optimistic that maybe there could be something that I could do, I don't know, maybe when I get back to Budzana, like I've already mentioned that I don't plan to stay here long, but the time I get back, I don't know. how I'm going to find my space in that sense because rarely do I see the academic side or research side of social workers that maybe went to school, get involved in a lot of things that influence the practice you get. So like you had already highlighted, you can imagine, even when we are in

class and studying social work, most of the books, you can find a local author. It's very rare for us to work with maybe books that maybe were written by a Motwana or something or even an African for that matter you get it's mostly European and all those kind of things European sense of welfare counseling who started this theory and that but you are not seeing the emergence of African academics in that sense so it just goes to show you that I think the European influence is still high and this is something that that I also asked myself if I'm not being a hypocrite because I'm here to get Western education. I'm here in Europe to get my master's, planning to get my PhD in that sense.

But I think I have really also been very careful to know that like, truth can coexist. I could be getting Western education, but also trying to balance and ensure that my studies really reflect where I come from. For example, you could even see with the choice of my research topic, I am really trying to, okay, see that we've been here. Can we move to us this direction when we are talking about making development policies for Africa? Can we acknowledge the context? Can we acknowledge that the context is different in that sense? Wow. There are so many challenges and you are so resilient in just continuing to fight the good fight. But you've neglected to mention,

you've moved to two countries now where you've not known anybody. You've just gone. where the passion has taken you, I guess, more so. I was going to say the wind, but no, this is very direct intentional. I'm going to move where my skills and my value will be. How do you manage all that? How do you continue that optimism? What support do you need, basically, to make it sustainable? I think I am practicing where I land. I see the social work popping up here and there. my friends always make fun of me like I'm the social work of the group like when people are going through this I'm the one who like they come to in terms of advice and stuff I think social work has taught me to be an adaptable person I can adapt very easily to different scenarios different situations

I have also because of the social work profession where you are taught that our clients are going to be diverse we're going to deal with a lot of diverse backgrounds I think I see in my daily life now that, you know, I deal with different people. I deal with from all the three countries that I've been to. I've always been able to like find the humanness in people despite us being different. And I think this just goes to show the resilience that we always talk about in our social work classes, right? But on a serious note, I think I have a solid support system, I would say, and I think I have good interpersonal skills and this has really helped me in building communities everywhere I go. I think if I was to move from Germany right now

and maybe go where else, maybe let's say Ireland, I would still always manage to make a small community for myself, mainly because I really understand the importance of a community, even in scenarios where people are not really more open, I would say. I still find a way to really just find my own people, nature that, and know that, like, it is this community that is going to save me, right? And I have been doing my best. Like I said, I had to get therapy. And it's been great.

I really do my best to stay in touch with people to be, like, social and all those kind of things. I also focusing and remembering why I'm here, what I need to get. Like you said, I'm being intentional. And then, yeah, let's see. Let's see how it goes. You mentioned to me earlier that your aunt is also a social worker. Does that help you in any way? Do you have conversations with her about what you're doing?

How much of that is a support structure? I think before maybe studying my career and also trying to really realize that, oh, I made this decision. I chose this. There's been opportunities to talk about it with her, but she's also been on the side of, you know, I'm overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed. I am like going through this and that cases. Sometimes she goes on trips, leaving her family for so long. But I think just being able to see someone do it, someone you know, someone that is accessible to you, it kind of makes you feel like, oh, I can also do it. And I think she has really made social work cool in my eyes, I would say.

He really made it look cool. I think she started working at the age of 26 by 27, 28. She already had their car. She already had this and that. So it really looked amazing. But unfortunately, we come from different. She was like born in the 80s. I'm born in the 90s.

Now we come from different generations. She's working. A job was already lined up for her. when she graduated. For me, I had to wait like at least four years to get like maybe a direct social work job. So you get like those kind of things. It's just like realizing that while we are in the same profession,

we are also experiencing the profession differently. But I've had recent chats with her to ask if she wants to do her master's and all those kind of things. She's like, no, I think I am fine. I think I have found my ground. I don't think I really want to go into academia or I really want to further my studies. I think I'm fine where I am. So yeah, I think it really helped.

I think if she's got a family as well, she probably has different priorities now. Different priorities, yeah. What are the positives? What kind of keeps you going and getting through this? What are the satisfying aspects of it for you? I always ask myself why I did this. I try to attach meaning to everything that I do. and I consider myself to be an advocate for vulnerable and marginalized people.

Every time I do stuff, I try to make sure I'm doing it intentional. When I chose my research topic for my master's, I was like, I don't want a research topic that is just going to get me a degree. I want a topic that will bear results after this, right? And immediately after that, I was able to present my papers at a conference, you know, all those kind of things. Now working to us publishing the paper with the conference organizers, this kind of reminds me why I'm doing this in the first place.

I think while I want to bring about change, I think change doesn't have to be drastic. It doesn't have to be like me becoming president and all those kind of things. I think I can really contribute with a little that I can. So for me, really the positives is always about what I'm doing it for. when I write a paper, I'm always like, who do I want this paper to reach? And why? If I'm writing, for example, like I said, I've shifted towards Africanizing social protection.

I know that maybe it's going to take 20, 30 years, but one day there will be young social workers or young social protection practitioners who are going to look up my papers and be like, oh, someone had similar ideas three decades ago. we are just building into what she did. And eventually we will see social protection policies that truly reflect African values and the African context, not what we are seeing right now,

which I would say is like hugely imported. Yeah. And it's that recognition piece as well. How great is it that they can have someone to look up to, maybe a role model, someone who has their background or similar experience from Africa, that academic piece isn't there, but maybe in future it will.

be. So that recognition is really important that they can do it as well. Yeah, I think I always remind myself that the thing that I'm trying to do, I don't have to see the results now. And it's okay. I don't have to, I don't even have to see the results because I'm doing this with good intentions and I know the expected outcomes with this. And one day it's going to make sense. I think we've seen it that everyone has been a young scholar at some point. But right now, there are scholars that we are quoting left right and center. And they were probably in this similar position as I am right now at some point in their lives where there's a lot of uncertainities. They are not sure why they have this push to push academia or like maybe to push whatever career that you seem. But then

later on they realized that oh, okay, this is what I've built. And the recognition will come later. And I think it's very important not to do things to get a clip because if you try to base whatever you do on getting external validation, you could never go anywhere. I generally believe you could if you waited for people to clap. What if the clap never comes? Yeah. And who was some of those influential writers for you personally? When I was working on my master's, I didn't think deep about this kind of things at the time that it's important if you are going to try to be an African scholar. It's important that you have a very good balance of African scholars in your in text citations and all those kind of things until I had a chat with my mentor. She's from Kenya, but she works around social

policy. And she just set me one day and she was like, where are you? I'm not seeing African scholars on your papers. And I was like, oh, okay, I have to prioritize that. So she has really gotten me into the works of Tandika Mukandawira. I think he's from. Malawi but he has worked in South Africa for quite some time and then went to London. He was very influential when he comes to social policies, economic policies in Africa. And he has really written a lot on like maybe cash transfers, foreign aid and all those kind of things and how they influence our current political landscape. He has really pushed a lot in the sense of like the political economy of social protection. And then,

And another scholar is Jimmy Adesina. I hope I'm pronouncing it well. He has really done a lot of work also around criticizing cash transfers, criticizing the World Bank to say the problem with Africa is not that African governments are not trying. It's because you are prescribing things that are wrong. You keep trying to give them a painkiller when they need an antibiotic. And mainly it's because you are missing out on acknowledging the context of things.

So he has really shaped a lot of my papers, a lot of my work. I think in Botswana we have Dr. Niziani. She's a social worker and she taught me research. But she has really written a lot on the topic I was talking about of informal social welfare. She has really written a lot of papers on this. And there has been a project in Botswana where the government partnered with this kind of informal groups to sort of address the HIV and AIDS pandemic and the project was a success. But now I'm sitting back and wondering like, okay, they saw this become a success,

but no one went after it to pursue it in other issues that we faced, like the COVID-19 pandemic and all those kind of things. Like, why, why are we having such good potential but not exploring it? So those are the three people that really shape a lot of my work. I'm still getting into Dr. Marion. who's my mentor, of course, she has to be there. She's also working on like social policy. And there is fin Owarre from Kenya. She has really shaped a lot of my Kenyan work. She was looking into opportunities to integrate formal and informal social protection into

one system. And her research findings were so interesting because they were saying, no, leave informal social protection separate because now if you are saying you're going to measure it with the formal, chances are that it's going to get swallowed by the formal thing and it's taking away the agency that we are really trying to push for. So those are kind of the things that are spiking my interest to further look into them and see what is what. Yeah, that's great. Two last honorable mentions there is one lecture at my recent university. His name is Sabelon Glovo Gatseni. His work is mainly decolonization, epistemization, epistem, injustices and all those kind of things.

And then France Phenon. Yeah, the one who wrote the rest of the earth, black skin, white masks, yes, the famous phenon who has sort of influenced a lot of decolonization. And it is through his work that I have kept myself in check when it comes to learning in a Western institution, trying to make sure that I don't replicate the epistemic injustices that we talk about. He was really influential when he comes to the African independence, struggles and all those

kind of things. That's what I'm into at the moment. Yes. Yeah. Is there anything else before we finish up, anything which I'd asked? I think maybe for your audience, I would say maybe just to wrap up maybe our conversation, while I have highlighted maybe the challenges that are there with the social work profession in Virginia, I also want to highlight the positive.

of the profession is that the profession is really anchored on the spirit of Ubuntu. Social workers really do their best and a lot of sacrifices to put people first, not in an imbalanced way, but just to make sure that we give our clients dignity. And that's one thing that, like, from the start of the profession, we are always reminded of that, like, we are all equal. You should treat your clients equal, regardless of the cultural background, regardless of where they come from. It's really one thing that is instilled, when I reflect on the social work in Botswana. I think also, while I've highlighted the issue of specialization,

I also want to highlight that social workers in Botswana really have good skills. They really carry a lot of skills. They are so versatile and so flexible that you could put them in this office and they would still excel. And I think that's the positive that comes out of doing that generic level of education. For me personally, the sky is the limit. I am really trying to push to go into my PhD so that at least when I go back to Botswana,

I am well-read and more qualified to sort of maybe get better positions that will allow me to sort of influence how I think or how I believe the social work landscape should look like in Botswana. I am really open to collaborations around the topics that I've mentioned of informal social welfare, of trying to understand the concept of welfare in Africa. I am also more into like social protection, trying to see how we can better or strengthen social protection so that we have better systems for the marginalized and vulnerable communities.

So I am more into the academia side, but I'm also doing my best to balance it with the practical outside in terms of policy. So that's what really I am into and moving towards the direction that I'm moving towards. It's so hard though, because I'm picturing you pushing a boulder up a hill, right? You're grappling with what was already a negative perception of social work within the country. And thankfully, you've had all this wonderful foundation in terms of your training and the focused experience that led from there. But it's hard when you don't have the recognition and the same backing that other countries might. But you're doing all this research into social assistance with that community approach. You're grappling with the challenges of role in definition, I guess,

or no specialisation or regulation within the profession. But still, despite that, wanting to work towards providing a voice or providing influence of African scholars and influencing change and making a difference. And as you said, Africanizing social work, which is so important. So, yeah, it is incredibly valiant work. It's something that needs to be done and just isn't being done. So I'm glad that someone's out there fighting the good fight and then hopefully being a role model for other people,

taking it back to your country and being able to say, we can do this. We just need to look at it from a different perspective, maybe. So it's so incredibly powerful what you're doing. And I hope that other people are equally energized and, inspired by the work that you're doing and want to continue to do. Yeah. Thank you so much for affording me this platform. I think it's one of the unconventional platforms that are probably under-explored, like when we think, oh, can we talk about social work? We think conferences,

we think seminars and all those kind of things. And to really just have people discussing social work at the tip of my headset while I do my work or driving in the morning, I think it's really, amazing work and I'm so interested in this project to see how many people you reach and how many different backgrounds you go into and like to really learn about social work from all corners of the world. I think it's an amazing work and a whole. Thank you. You continue doing that. Thank you so much and I'm so grateful to you and to so many other people who have afforded me the time and the energy and just being able to explain how things are for them and what they're passionate about. So Kamoza, thank you so, so much again for making the time to do this.

It's been such a pleasure to meet with you. And yeah, hopefully we can keep in touch and see what you get up to. I hope so. I hope so. I hope we keep in touch beyond the podcast. Thank you so much and all the best. Thank you. My pleasure.

Thank you for joining me this week. If you would like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Komoto, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm.fm slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky, or you can email SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Next episode's guest is Dr. Joe, a community practice and youth specialist with a PhD in social work,

specialising in youth development. He teaches and supervises students at the University of Botswana and publishes widely in the area of social work and motivation. Dr Joe is also active in community work regularly presenting on national radio and television on issues of social well-being and hosting his own podcast and YouTube channel. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you are notified when this next episode is available. See you then.