Austrian Journalist visit project partners

Stories of triumph, resilience and courage of local grassroots communities are what brought five Austrian journalists to the Philippines last November 4 – 8, 2011.

Roman Kloibhofer, Chief-Editor of the Austrian daily newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Julia Schilly, writer for the Austrian Online-Newspaper http://derStandard.at, Sandra Szabo, a radio-journalist for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF,  Rainer Brinskelle, a freelance writer  for the daily newspaper KleineZeitung, and Veronika Mauler  another radio journalist of the Austrian Catholic radio station Stephansdom visited IPDI and DKA Partners in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

The group, which was accompanied by two DKA Officers, Clara Handler and Georg Bauer, interviewed women and child’s rights advocates from the Parishes of St. Peter, St. Joseph the Defender and Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Novaliches in Quezon City. The barangays in these said parishes are the project areas of the Salvatorian Pastoral Care for Women and Children (SPCC), a long time IPDI and DKA partner.

According to the Director of SPCC, the stories which their advocates shared reflect the bitter realities within the communities – domestic violence and various abuses to women and children. But more importantly, she added, it also mirrors their hopes and hard work to overcome these with the help of IPDI and DKA.

The stories from the partners will be published in Austria to serve as awareness-raising materials and will also be used for raising project funds for the numerous DKA-assisted partners in the Philippines.

IPDI, DKA and SPCC have been in partnership for almost a decade now and the latter was chosen as DKA’s model project for 2010.