Bruno Kreisky Foundation

for Human Rights

neighbors in Vienna (Austria)

This young organisation was founded in Vienna by a tandem of the internist Christine Scholten and the social worker Renate Schnee. Their admirable project "Nachbarinnen" (The Neighbours) addresses multidimensional aspects of the integration of immigrants into Austrian society. The organisation is a fully practical response to the needs of immigrant families, encouraging their participation in social life in Austria and instructing them on essential systemic issues related to health and education so that they can efficiently benefit from the available opportunities. The projects aims not only to help meet the core needs of immigrants but goes further, sparking potential ideas of how to enrich the life of an immigrant with positive experiences and to enable full integration in order to avoid the phenomenon of "parallel societies". The Neighbours are female facilitators who speak Turkish, Arabic, Somalian and Chechen. The project is a clear manifestation of solidarity in its most humane form. At the heart of it lies the remarkable idea of helping others to self-help.