Dear Colleagues,
I bring you Season’s Greetings and my best wishes for a blessed Festive Season and New Year.
This is a time when we yearn for the lasting joy and peace that the Festive Season symbolizes to unfold for the whole world.
Yet, as we pause to re-imagine a world at peace, we cannot escape reflecting on the atrocities, profound hardship, and deepening human suffering experienced across the globe.
Peace and prosperity stand in stark contrast to the realities of conflict, environmental disasters, structural and systemic inequalities, hunger, displacement, and profound loss. Human life is under acute threat, and human dignity is deeply wounded.
We also recognise forms of violence that extend beyond armed conflict—the pervasive and systemic wars of hunger, poverty, inequality, gender-based and sexual violence, displacement, and structural exclusion that continue to claim lives and erode wellbeing.
In the face of such suffering, we also witness the resilience of communities, the courage of social workers and educators, and the enduring power of solidarity that continues to open pathways toward peace and reconciliation.
In this season, let us recommit ourselves to building peace, strengthening human dignity, and advancing social justice through education, research, and ethical practice.
On behalf of IASSW, I extend my sincere gratitude for your commitment to preparing socially responsive graduates and contributing to a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Let us unite our efforts toward 2026—across borders—with competence, compassion, and hope for shared and sustainable futures.
In peace and solidarity,
Prof Antoinette Lombard
President, International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)
December 2025
