Reineth Prinsloo elected as vice-president of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG)

Prof Reineth Prinsloo was elected as vice-president of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG), Inc. Founded in 1979, IASWG is the premier international association for social workers and allied helping professionals engaged in group work. The purpose of this non-profit, member-driven organization is to promote excellence in group work practice, education, field instruction, research and publication. The goals of the Association are realised through a program of action and advocacy at local and international levels. Members are from Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Namibia, Netherlands, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad-Tobago, and U.S.

Reineth became a member of IASWG in 2000 and did her first international presentation at the Toronto symposium. She attended as many symposiums as possible and took her first group of students to Chicago in 2009 to present the work they do in our ‘Rainbow Nation’. She represented South Africa on the board since 2013. In 2018 she had the honour to be the chair for the 40th International Symposium in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Since the formation of the organisation 40 years ago, Prof Prinsloo is only the second person from outside Northern America to be elected to the IASWG presidential committee. Prof Mark Doel, Sheffield-Hallam University, UK, served as vice-president prior to the recent election.

The current Presidential committee is Dr Barb Muskat from Toronto, Canada as President, Dr Ginette Berteau from Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada as vice-president and Prof Reineth Prinsloo, University of Pretoria, South Africa as vice-president.