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My Experience as a Social Worker in Belanda

Published
2 years agoon
By
Mitra Wacana
Hey! Let me introduce myself first! My name is Arianne and I’m from Belanda. In Belanda I’m studying Social Work (Pekerjaan Social) and I’m now in my 7th semester. At this moment I’m doing my internship (magang) for Mitra Wacana. And as a part of my internship, I will tell you a little bit about Belanda.
In this article I will tell you about Social Work in Belanda.
In Belanda a lot of people work as a Social Worker. And there are a lot of jobs that a Social Worker can do. They can not only work in an NGO or at the government, but they can also work in (high)schools, elderly homes or in the facilities for handicapped. Also a lot of Social Workers work with children. For example, if the parents are unstable and can’t raise their child, a social worker will come to the family and help them.
In my experience Social Work is an informal job in Belanda, just like in Indonesia. The people who are a Social Worker do have a big heart for people. Meaning, they want to help people getting a better life. But in Belanda Social Workers think it’s very important to work together with the people. So instead of just helping the people, we want to work together with them to empower them. The goal is to teach them how to take care of themselves in the future. And I think that is a really good goal!
Now I’m going to tell you about one of the social problems that we have in Belanda. The reason I do this, is to give knowledge about that in western countries there are also problems in the society, just like in Indonesia. And of course, we can’t compare a western country with Indonesia. But it’s still good to know that a country as Belanda has its own problems.
One of the problems we have now is that there are a lot of old people (65+) in Belanda, and not enough young people to do all the jobs. So, in Indonesia it’s hard to get a job because there are so many people, but in Belanda there are a lot of jobs that are open. The reason that we have so many old people is because after World War 2 a lot of babies were born (we call that the baby boom generation). People had 5 until 10 children. But since it is really expensive to have that many children, from 1960/1970 people decided to have only 2 or 3 children. So what’s happening now is that the whole baby boom generation is not working anymore. And all the young people should fill their jobs. But there are not enough people to do all the jobs. So that’s why we have a lot of people from east Europe that come and work in Belanda. For example people from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania. And sometimes from Asia.
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Mahasiswa asal Norway Penelitian Isu Kesetaraan Gender di Mitra Wacana

Published
2 weeks agoon
3 February 2025By
Mitra Wacana
Yogyakarta — Mitra Wacana, organisasi yang konsen pada isu kesetaraan gender, menerima kunjungan akademis dari Anja Bulic, mahasiswa S1 Global Development asal University of Agder, Norwegia, pada Senin (3/1/2025). Kunjungan pukul 11.00–12.00 WIB ini merupakan bagian dari penelitian Anja tentang ketidakadilan dan kekerasan berbasis gender di Indonesia yang dilakukan dalam rangka kerja sama antara University of Agder Norwegia dengan Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). Anja diterima langsung oleh Wahyu Tanoto (Dewan Pengurus) dan Alfi Ramadhani (Koordinator Divisi Pendidikan dan Pengorganisasian Mitra Wacana).
Sebelum kunjungan, Anja telah mengirim surat permohonan penelitian dilengkapi panduan pertanyaan dan kebutuhan data. Penelitian ini tidak hanya menjadi bahan skripsinya, tetapi juga bagian dari program kolaborasi antar universitas yang memfasilitasi mahasiswa Norwegia untuk melakukan studi lapangan di Indonesia. Fokus Anja adalah menganalisis korelasi konstruksi / peran gender dengan kekerasan berbasis gender, serta dampak sosial-budaya terhadap kesetaraan.
Dalam diskusi, Anja menyoroti tiga aspek utama: gambaran peran gender di ranah domestik dan publik, hubungannya dengan kasus kekerasan berbasis gender, serta pengaruh sosial-budaya dan keberagaman masyarakat terhadap kesetaraan gender.
Wahyu Tanoto menjelaskan, ketimpangan gender di Indonesia masih dipengaruhi kuat oleh struktur patriarki. “Di ranah domestik, perempuan sering dianggap sebagai pengurus rumah tangga, sementara laki-laki diharapkan menjadi pencari nafkah. Ini memicu ketimpangan akses pendidikan dan partisipasi politik,” jelasnya. Sementara Alfi Ramadhani menambahkan, mitos-mitos dan stigma yang berkembang di masyarakat yang justru memperparah kerentanan kelompok marginal.
Anja juga menggali program Mitra Wacana dalam mendorong kesetaraan gender, seperti pelatihan kesadaran gender bagi masyarakat, pendampingan korban kekerasan, dan advokasi kebijakan inklusif. “Kami menggunakan pendekatan multisektor, mulai dari edukasi di tingkat akar rumput hingga kolaborasi dengan pemerintah,” papar Alfi.
Kunjungan ini dinilai strategis untuk memperluas perspektif global terkait isu gender. “Kerja sama dengan akademisi internasional seperti Anja membantu kami mendokumentasikan praktik terbaik dan memperkuat jejaring advokasi,” tutup Wahyu.
Penelitian Anja diharapkan tidak hanya menyelesaikan tugas akademik, tetapi juga memberikan rekomendasi berbasis data untuk mengurangi kesenjangan gender di Indonesia. (ruly)