Of the millions of Community Health Workers (CHWs) serving their communities across the world, there are approximately twice as many female CHWs as there are male. Hiring women has in many cases become an ethical expectation, in part because working as a CHW is often seen as empowering the CHW herself to enact positive change in her community. This article draws on interviews, participant observation, document review and a survey carried out in rural Amhara, Ethiopia from 2013 to 2016 to explore discourses and experiences of empowerment among unpaid female CHWs in Ethiopia's Women's Development Army (WDA). This programme was designed to encourage women to leave the house and gain decision-making power vis-a-vis their husbands-and to use this power to achieve specific, state-mandated, domestically centred goals. Some women discovered new opportunities for mobility and self-actualization through this work, and some made positive contributions to the health system. At the same time, by design, women in the WDA had limited ability to exercise political power or gain authority within the structures that employed them, and they were taken away from tending to their individual work demands without compensation. The official rhetoric of the WDA-that women's empowerment can happen by rearranging village-level social relations, without offering poor women opportunities like paid employment, job advancement or the ability to shape government policy-allowed the Ethiopian government and its donors to pursue 'empowerment' without investments in pay for lower-level health workers, or fundamental freedoms introduced into state-society relations.

Does volunteer community health work empower women? Evidence from Ethiopia's Women's Development Army.

A Context‐Informed Perspective of Child Risk and Protection: Deconstructing Myths in the Risk Discourse

Increasingly, social work is being challenged to consider the role of spirituality and religion in practice and education as the profession has witnessed an expanding interest in the integration of spirituality, motivated by the recognition of spiritual diversity as an important component of human experience, cultural competency and anti-racist social work practice. In response to the lack of international empirical research in general, and relating to spirituality in particular, cross-national survey research was conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) and the UK as part of a larger multi-national study of social workers' attitudes about the role of spirituality in their practice. Although the two countries share some cultural similarities due to the impact of secularization, British settlement and colonization in ANZ, there are also significant differences related to the unique multicultural make-up of ANZ, emphasizing the indigenous Maori and the centrality of spirituality within a Maori worldview.

A Comparative Survey of Aotearoa New Zealand and UK Social Workers on the Role of Religion and Spirituality in Practice

SummarySocial workers’ perceptions regarding child risk and protection tend to rely on universal criteria that may differ from the perceptions of minority groups. The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communit...

Social workers’ constructions of child risk and protection in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community:

This article focuses on perceptions of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox population in Israel—a religious minority—regarding guidelines enacted by the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) during the country’s second wave of COVID-19, and ways the community coped with the pandemic. Semi-structured interviews with 30 ultra-Orthodox individuals revealed five major discourses reflecting participants’ perceptions. Three discourses objected to MOH guidelines, while the other two aligned with them. The study’s findings also indicate a lack of cooperation between the ultra-Orthodox population and state health authorities, emphasizing the need to implement culturally adapted health interventions. Study limitations are discussed, and future research recommendations are provided. 

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Religious Minorities’ Perceptions of Official COVID-19 Health Guidelines: The Case of Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel

This article addresses child protection in close-knit religious communities. Specifically, it presents the findings of a qualitative research project that examined Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents’ perceptions and ascribed meanings of child risk and protection based on fifty in-depth interviews with parents from Israel and the USA. Here, we hone in on one key theme that emerged from our analysis of the interviews, which the interviewees themselves referred to as ‘spiritual risk’. ‘Spiritual risk’ is a complex construct comprising the following three interrelated dimensions: (i) a decline in observance of the Torah and the commandments, (ii) violation of socio-cultural norms and rules and (iii) a decline in spiritual beliefs, including the sense of connection with G-d. In the eyes of parents, it is decline in these three dimensions that constitutes the ‘spiritual risk’ to the child. ‘Spiritual risk’ can be a consequence of parental maltreatment and can result in children and adolescents moving away from the Ultra-Orthodox religious world and leaving their community. The results of this study advocate context-informed and religious-sensitive prevention and intervention programmes. They also highlight the need to include context and religious competency in the training of professionals working with diverse communities.

‘Spiritual Risk’: A Parental Perception of Risk for Children in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community

This chapter presents the findings of a qualitative research project that examined ultra-Orthodox (UO) Jewish perceptions and ascribed meanings of child risk and protection based on 85 in-depth interviews with UO parents and professionals working within the community in Israel. We present four main themes involving the vulnerability of UO children to risk and means for their protection: (1) Child independence; the way UO parents construct independence versus risk enables them to assess the ways in which young children function in endangering surroundings; (2) The individual and the community; the relationship between the two and the specific forces involved in this interaction; (3) The spiritual context; in many ways, this issue affects all of the findings, as it has a major influence on training, prevention, and intervention efforts; and (4) Prevention of sexual abuse; UO society is systematically raising public awareness of sexual abuse, including its prevention, treatment, and implications on the children’s well-being. It is also dealing with the unique challenges the community faces due to this sensitive issue. In the discussion, we argue that when seeking to identify the causes of risk in the life of an UO child, one must be cognizant of the fact that risk is placed in different locations from where we might assume. These locations exist in physical or conceptual dimensions. Therefore, we must note the following issues: (1) unique risk situations in the communal zone; (2) risk lies where support ends; and (3) the treatment response can be intervention or invasion.

Parental and Professional Perspectives of Child Risk and Protection in Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Community

‘All in all … it begins with love’: The meanings of parental love in the context of child risk and protection among Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents

Rivka Keesing

Papers

‘Spiritual Risk’: A Parental Perception of Risk for Children in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community

Parental and Professional Perspectives of Child Risk and Protection in Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Community

‘All in all … it begins with love’: The meanings of parental love in the context of child risk and protection among Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents