On May 5^th, Mr. NG Shui-Lai, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Christian Services, Honorary Fellowship of Hong Kong Baptist University, gave a speech on The Development of Social Work in Mainland China: A Global Perspective at UIC. Professor Samuel HUI, Program Coordinator of Social Work & Social Administration (SWSA), hosted the speech. Not only teachers and students from SWSA attended the speech, but also some students from other majors.

Mr. NG Shui-Lai talked about the international developmental trend of social work and several aspects for enhancing social work in Mainland China.  Mr. Ng said the trend of social work has been changed from focusing on social assistance to enhancing social development. In addition, social workers are not only concentrating on clinic intervention, but also beginning to realize the importance of social policy, i.e. social administration.

 "We social workers are neither God, nor people who just work in society. We try to empower people in need and help them participate in the community voluntarily." Mr. NG addressed. Meanwhile, he also said that social workers were focusing on community network building nowadays, and this was one of the advantages Mainland China possessed. What's more, social workers were playing more important roles in the natural disaster relief and crisis intervention.

 Mr. NG held an optimistic point of view on the social work development in Mainland China. Nevertheless, lots of improvements need to be stressed out. For example, legal system of social welfare and social development should be improved; social workers must provide high quality service and follow professional ethics; an effective team of social workers must be built. What's more, utilizing successful experiences from other areas was important while the localization of it in Mainland China was also essential.

During the speech, a student asked what the difficulties were when developing social work in Mainland China. Mr. NG explained in detail. He said, many people had no idea about social work; though many universities had the social work major, they didn't provide proper internship for students since they didn't have enough experienced teachers and professors; and some social workers also lacked confidence in themselves. However, he mentioned UIC SWSA students were lucky to have many distinguished professors who had rich experience in social work and social administration, and could take more than 1000 internship hours to practice social work. "Although you are facing many challenges, as long as the society needs social work, your major will have a bright future!"

"I'm so glad to hear that Mr. NG said social administration is becoming more popular. We not only learn social work, but also social administration here in UIC!" A Year 3 student majoring in SWSA said. Ye Xufeng was a Year 4 student, he said, Mr. NG's speech confirmed his idea that social work needed legal and political support. It also gave him some inspirations for his future career.

In the end of the lecture,  Prof. Samuel Hui sent Mr. NG Shui-Lai a scroll with Chinese calligraphy that read "助人自助", i.e. "Help people to help themselves" on behalf of SWSA.

The speech was one of the Distinguished Lecture series of SWSA, "As part of the 5th UIC Anniversary Celebration activities, we invite distinguished guest   speakers to deliver talks for students to better understand social work and have a prospective view of the social development in China." Professor Hui said.