Wednesday, November 16, 2011 A lecture was organized at the Conferences Room, Old Campus Library, for the Swiss Lecturer Uli Schwarzmann in which he spoke about the conditions of social work in Europe and the challenges that workers in this field encounter particularly in Switzerland. The lecture aimed to offer a global vision with respects to the challenges that modern societies face and how to deal with such challenges.

The event was administered by Dr. Sami Al-Kilani, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, and was organized in cooperation with the International Youth Exchange Program (Zajel) and the Office of the University President Assistant for Graduate Affairs.

In his lecture, Mr. Schwarzmann spoke about the difficulties that social work in Europe encounters. Europe contains a whole diversity of countries with diverse cultures, languages and political regimes, a fact that imposes various challenges on those who work in the field of social work.

Among the problems that exist in the European society is the weakness in the extended family, the decrease in population, the difficulties that youth face while trying to join the work field, the migration from the different countries to Europe in light of the current economical crises, the health insurance system in Europe and its role in treating the social crises, the health problems and the support offered in this regard, and the role of civil work organizations in light of the changing circumstances.

Mr. Schwarzmann connected these issues with the Palestinian reality and a discussion was raised in this field.

Schwarzmann is a retired Swiss lecturer who worked as a director at the Health and Environment Department in Zurich, Switzerland. He Holds a Master degree in social work from Columbia University in New York, and the General Administration certificate from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He also worked as Dean of the Faculty of Social Work and as an instructor at the different universities in Switzerland.