The Austrian Social Service (Österreichischer Sozialdienst) is part of the Austrian Service Abroad founded by Dr. Andreas Maislinger in 1998. It offers the possibility to substitute the compulsory military service in Austria with a 10-months service abroad and provides a platform for volunteering services.
Legal Framework
As part of the Austrian Service Abroad the Austrian Social Service is funded and supervised by the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs and subject to the federal law for the promotion of voluntary engagement (Bundesgesetz zur Förderung von freiwilligem Engagement.)[1]
Mission and structure
The Austrian Social Service supports socially vulnerable groups and the social and economic development of the host country. Austrian Social Servants are deployed in various kinds of partner organizations in a large number of countries. The focus lies on the developing world.
Assignments
The Austrian Social Servants work in the fields of education, care, medical support, agriculture and economic development for street or homeless children, elderly, handicapped, ill, poor and / or marginalized people. Furthermore, also the field of environmental protection belongs to the Austrian Social Service, partnering with organizations engaged in projects for the protection and sustenance of the natural environment.
Since 2018 the Austrian Service Abroad also partakes in the program Understanding Israel, sending young Austrians to do social service at child-care places and handicapped-care facilities in the state of Israel in cooperation with the Israeli Volunteer Association.
Partners
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- Buenos Aires - Center for homeless children and adolescents
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Belgium
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- Sarajevo - Phoenix Initiative
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Brasil
- Alagoinhas - Associacao Lar Sao Benedito
- Lauro de Freitas - Community Centre Christ Liberator
- Rio de Janeiro - Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
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- Qiqihar - China SOS Children's Village Association Beijing, Qiqihar city, Helongjiang Province und Yantai City, Shandong Province
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- La Gamba - Tropical Field Station La Gamba
- Puntarenas - Finca Sonador - Asociaicón de Cooperativas Europeas Longo Mai
- Puntarenas - Union de Amigos para la Protección del Ambiente (Unaproa)
- San Isidro - Asociación Vida Nueva
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Germany
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India
- Auroville - Auroville Action Group (AVAG)
- Dharmshala - Nishtha, Nishtha - Rural Health, Education and Environment Centre
- Dharmshala - Tibetan Children's Village:*Dharmshala - Tibetan Welfare Office
- Kerala - Mata Amritanandamayi Mission
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Israel
- Jerusalem - St. Vinzenz-Ein Karem
- Understanding Israel
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Kenya
- Nairobi - Kenya Water for Health Organisation (KWAHO)
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Nicaragua
- Granada - Fundación Casa de los tres mundos
- León - Campo Recreativo MILAVF
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Norway
- Oslo - Jodisk Aldersbolig
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- SOS children villages Pakistan Karachi, Sialkot, Dodhial, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Lahore, Rawalpindi und Multan
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- Huancayo - Unidad Territorial de Salud Daniel Alcides Carrión
- Lima - The information and education centre for the prevention of drug abuse (CEDRO)
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- Kraków - Polska Akcja Humanitarna
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Russia
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- Prague - Jüdische Gemeinde
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- Fort Portal - Mountains of the Moon University (MMU)
- Kabale - Diözese Kabale - Bishops House
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United States
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