MCI Graduate Receives ÖIF Research Award

Alumna of the master's program in Social Work, Social Policy & Management honored for her outstanding master's thesis

The Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) honors outstanding university theses and dissertations with its prestigious research award. Ana Desnica, a graduate of the master's degree program in Social Work, Social Policy & Management at MCI, impressed the jury with her excellent master's thesis and received the coveted award this year.

In her thesis entitled “'I'll stay with you' - Evaluation of the ertebat Kids sponsorship project from the perspective of human rights-oriented Social Work”, she sheds light on a relevant topic.

“The commission from the Plattform Asyl association to evaluate the “ertebat Kids” sponsorship project was an opportunity for me to meet the need to integrate scientific findings into practice. This is one of the basic principles of the Master's program at MCI. In my evaluation, I was guided by the human rights of children as a central benchmark for professional practice and interventions. These rights serve not only to protect children, but also to promote and enable their participation in all areas of life.

The system and needs-oriented perspective allowed me to develop practice-oriented recommendations for action, taking into account the complex power dynamics within the sponsorship systems. These recommendations are intended to serve both the project sponsor Plattform Asyl and future volunteer projects with similar objectives in order to promote professional and human rights-oriented interactions,” Ana Desnica explains her choice of topic.

Andrea Trenkwalder-Egger, supervisor of the master's thesis, adds: “Ana Desnica chose a human rights-oriented perspective for her evaluation. Her work is of high scientific relevance, as it deals intensively with the topic of child participation. She emphasizes the importance of child participation and pursues a high ethical standard by using five different data sets to paint a comprehensive picture of children's needs and the challenges of sponsor-child tandems.

Of particular note is the critical examination of legitimate and illegitimate exercise of power within the project and the focus on transforming disabling power into limiting power to enable children's needs to be met. Their findings provide valuable insights that enrich both the practice and theory of human rights-oriented Social Work."