She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
Marion Thuswald was born in 1978 in Austria. In 1997 and 1998, after completing her training in social education, she worked as an Austrian Peace Service volunteer with a youth peace project in the war-torn city of Vukovar in Croatia. Back in Austria she became a member of the staff and later the board of the Austrian Peace Service. For a while she also served as managing director. From Vienna she visits and coordinates the team of Austrian Peace Service volunteers in Vukovar. She maintains and strengthens contacts she made in Croatia with people needing help, among others, many Roma (on IFOR.org).
She says: « All people are equal, distinct, and unique ».
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Marion Thuswald – Austria
Ihre Diplomarbeit: Betteln als Beruf? … ein Interview / (Her dissertation: mendicity as a profession? … an interview in german) – Sorry, no downloadable photo found for Marion Thuswald, Austria.
She works for the Österreichische Friedensdienste ÖFD /Austrian Peace Service, for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation IFOR, and for the Youth Peace Group Danube YPGD.
(1000peacewomen): Marion Thuswald was born in Austria in 1978. In 1997 and 1998, after completing her training in social education, she worked as a peace service volunteer for ÖFD (Austrian Peace Service) with a youth peace project in the war-torn city of Vukovar in Croatia. Back in Austria, she became a member of the staff and later of the board of the ÖFD. She also was the managing director for some time. She maintains and strengthens contacts she made in Croatia with people needing help, many Roma among others. After finishing school, Marion Thuswald was drawn to Southeast Europe, where she wanted to help shape her world and make her effortl and energy available for something worthwhile. She went with the Austrian Peace Service association for a year as a peace volunteer ito the most destroyed city in Croatia: Vukovar.
There she supported the Youth Peace Group Danube (YPGD), an interethnic youth project founded by local young people. With much tact and teamwork she motivated the local people to be active themselves. She strengthened their self-confidence while keeping herself in the background.
Among Marions’s strengths are awareness and pragmatism. She keeps her feet on the ground and is constantly aware of her privileged position, in which she is allowed to “help.” For her, peace service means living with people, not feeling sorry for them.
Marion directs theater workshops and intercultural summer camps in Austria with Serb, Croatian and Austrian children. Back in Austria she became a staff member, later a board member of the Austrian Peace Service in Vienna. For a while she also acted as managing director. Based in Vienna, she visits and coordinates the team of Austrian peace volunteers in Vukovar every two to three months.
In this way she has given other young women the courage to participate as well. That is very important because they are crucial connections and persons of trust for the staff members and girls there.
As an active young woman who has taken her life in her hands, she is a model in Austria as well as in Croatia. It is not surprising that almost all those working as peace volunteers in Croatia are young men, as the volunteer year counts as alternative military service for them, and war areas seem to be predestined for men.
Women as active thinkers and helpers are especially needed in just such challenging places. Marion Thuswald builds and strengthens the contacts that she was able to make in Croatia with, among others, many Roma. Some of the young people from the YPGD are now working, for example, in other organizations in leading positions or have found work abroad. She arranged the connections despite her ambivalence: was it not her responsibility to encourage people to stay? But not at any price, because “…staying must be voluntary, not forced.” (on 1000peacewomen).
… Markus Pühringer, the only fix employee, left the ÖFD with beginning of July. Marion Thuswald took over his task temporarily and from January on Veronika Nietsche will start working. As Veronika is also working for the World University Service in Graz, the ÖFD will transfer his office as well from Linz and Vienna respectively to Graz … (full text).
Find her and her publications on Google Scholar-search.
No other english texts found about Marion Thuswald, Austria, but hereafter some texts in german:
Thuswald absolvierte die Bundesbildungsanstalt für Sozialpädagogik und studiert Pädagogik in Wien. Sie engagiert sich in Erwachsenenbildung, interkultureller und feministischer Bildung. Sie ist Mitglied des Internationalen Versöhnungsbundes, österreichischer Zweig. 2005 wurde Marion Thuswald für ihre Arbeit mit den Österreichischen Friedensdiensten in Vukovar im Rahmen von 1000 Frauen für den Friedensnobelpreis 2005 für den Friedensnobelpreis nominiert … (ganzer Text).
Betteln als Beruf? Frauen mit Überlebenskompetenz und Habitus des selbstbewussten Leidens: Ist Betteln Arbeit? Oder gar ein Beruf, der spezifisches Wissen und kontinuierliches Lernen erfordert? Marion Thuswald sprach mit Bettlerinnen auf Wiens Straßen und entwickelte eine neue und ungewöhnliche Forschungsperspektive auf das Thema, die die Frauen nicht nur als passive Opfer ihrer sozialen Schieflage wahrnimmt … (ganzer Text).
Ein Google-Buch zum Herunterladen: Feindbilder und Verständigung, By Josef Berghold, 2007, 340 Seiten.
Marion Thuswald (* 1978) ist eine österreichische Friedensaktivistin … (ganzer Text).
Die dumme Augustine ist ein 1972 erschienener Kinderbuchklassiker von Otfried Preußler (Text) und Herbert Lentz (Illustration) über Emanzipation und Selbstverwirklichung. Es erschien zuerst im Thienemann-Verlag … Die Autorin Marion Thuswald in ihren Buchempfehlungen für die Volksschule herausgegeben von der österreichischen Informationsplattform zur Politischen Bildung schreibt dazu in der Broschüre Geschlechtssensible politische Kinderbücher [1] in ähnlicher Weise: Das Buch ist schon 35 Jahre alt. Auch wenn sich seither vieles geändert hat, eines ist gleich geblieben: Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung sind noch immer überwiegend Frauenarbeit, auch wenn zunehmend mehr Frauen berufstätig sind. Deshalb ist dieses Buch über Hausarbeit noch immer aktuell…In einem aktuelleren Buch würden dabei wohl noch die Aspekte betont werden, die einen Rollenwechsel auch für die Männer attraktiv machen: Mitzuerleben wie die Kinder aufwachsen … (ganzer Text).
… und in einer Sprache aus dem Balkan: İLETİŞİM TEKNİKLERİ ANLATILDI: Yerel Gündem 21 Gençlik Meclisi iletişim tekniklerinin anlatıldığı bir etkinlik düzenledi. YG-21 Genel Sekreterliğinin Eğitim Salonunda yapılan etkinlikte Kadınlarla Dayanışma Vakfı (KADAV) eğitmeni Marion Thuswald gençlere bilgilerini aktardı … (ganzer Text).
Links:
Stellungnahme des Vereins Österreichische Friedensdienste zur ZDG-Novelle 2001;
Das Buch: Ich will nicht betteln, aber dürfen muss ich!;
Geschlechtssensible politische Kinderbücher: auf Bildungs Server, auf COE.int;
Newsletter Armutskonferenz, September 2008;
Wikipedia Kategorie: Bürgerrechtler.