The high levels of absolute poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy across the sub- Saharan region require African social workers to develop new methods of intervention which differ from those used in Western countries. Identifying, augmenting and enhancing the strengths of disadvantaged people lie at the core of all social work practice. This paper adumbrates the range of survival strategies used by African households and concludes that these require buttressing through alternative approaches to orthodox social work methods.