Editorial

This issue of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk attests to a lively, wide-ranging academic scene, with topics taking stock of challenges related to social work education and the experiences of vulnerable women, children and families.

The first two articles address the desirability of teaching community development and interweaving community engagement into social work education. The first article examines the divergent views of social work educators and practitioners on the desirability of teaching community development in the undergraduate social work programme. The second article offers insights into the importance of community engagement in social work education and into the ways that social justice, advocacy and empowerment are interwoven into the learning experiences of students.

Thereafter a duo of articles offers insights into the experiences of vulnerable women. One article describes how women living with HIV and Aids experience the interplay between culture, HIV transmission and disclosure experiences. The other article discusses the experiences of widows who are deprived of their property, socially excluded and marginalised upon the death of their husbands.

The focus of the next three articles is on experiences of children. The first explores how caregivers utilise the Child Support Grant to address the basic needs of children in their care, while the second discusses how their culture and the specific community they live in influence the types of play of middle childhood children. The third article examines accounts by adults of their exposure to child sex tourism through child prostitution.

The issue concludes with an article that focuses on the wellbeing of families. It describes the effects of a father's misuse of alcohol on the wellbeing of his family.

Prof Sulina Green

Department of Social Work, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.