By Paul R. Tempo
“The world goes via a difficult time in regard to ladies’s well being and rights, and as a social employee we now have a vital position to play to make sure ladies have entry to correct care and well being,” says Yasoda Sharma, PhD, MSW, director of Area IV for NASW’s nationwide board of administrators.
“My inspiration to serve on the board got here from my need to work towards the mission of NASW and the betterment of the social work career,” she says.
Sharma, professor on the Division of Social Work at Kutztown College in Pennsylvania, notes she got here from a “humble background in a really small state in northeast India known as Sikkim. I’ve seen firsthand the challenges confronted by ladies, ethnic and gender minorities.”
“I all the time wished to work round ladies’s points and tackle ladies’s discrimination each globally and domestically,” she says.
When Sharma labored for a hospital in Nepal, a tragic occasion triggered her future path. On the time, a person found he was HIV constructive from a blood take a look at. Upon listening to the information, the person later killed his household and himself.
“That actually disturbed me,” Sharma displays. “I used to be the one social employee working on the hospital. I simply felt if solely I had the chance to talk with this individual — I can’t assure I’d have stopped him from taking that step — I’d have at the very least helped him with assets and possibly he wouldn’t have taken such a drastic step.”
After the tragedy, Sharma pressured to hospital directors the significance of establishing a volunteer counseling and testing middle. It took three years to search out funding for the hassle, but it surely lastly materialized. As soon as the middle was established, Sharma says she was amazed by the amount of individuals searching for providers.
“I got here throughout a whole lot of ladies who contracted HIV from their intimate associate,” she says.
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