Social Work students visited the UNU
Social Work students visited the UNU
15
Mar
15/03/2021
On March 10, 2021, students from year 3 Bachelor of Social Work Programme participated in a forum at the United Nations in Macao (the UNU in Macao).
On March 10, 2021, students from year 3 Bachelor of Social Work Programme, accompanied by Prof. Helen Liu and Prof. Michael Lai from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education (FSSE), were honoured to have participated in a forum at the United Nations in Macao (the UNU in Macao). Discovering that the yellow elegant building in the Estrada do Engenheiro Trigo is the UNU in Macao, entirely intrigued the students to be strongly involved in the discussion.
Professionals from different fields in the UN shared their current research projects. Dr. Jingbo Huang, the director of the UNU in Macao, introduced their Institute. Research team in the UNU in Macao gave a presentation about their research, including Dr. Hannah Thinyane and Mikael Gallo, Migrant Technology research; Dr. Mamello Thinyane, Cyber-resilience research; and Dr. Serge Stinckwich, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Members of the UNU research team emphasised the role of social workers in contributing to solving forced labour and human trafficking problems in Macao and around the world. They explained that social workers could serve as a front line of the professionals who can identify the victims of the human trafficking, as well as being service providers for victims.
Next, the topic of cyber protection brought interest to our students and boost willingness of USJ students to be a part of research and designing process of appropriate cyber resilience platform in Macao. Another talk that created a discussion among the students and the project was Artificial Intelligence (AI). Students showed interest in this area of research and discussed how AI can be helpful for the vulnerable population of children and elderly.
This visit was a stepping stone to building strong collaboration between the Department of Social Work and the UNU in Macao. Through the discussion with the UNU in Macao, USJ students got a better understand about the process of working together in promoting the 17 SDGs, where some share a common mission with the social work professions and how this partnership can encourage data-driven and evidence-based actions and policies to achieve the SDGs.
