“No distance is too far” by Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler

Under the title “No distance is too far”, Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler, known to many as a member of the cantonal parliament of Bern (SVP) and as president of the association “Parents against Drugs”, gives an insight into her varied, active and committed life.

Based on diary entries that she began as a child and continued into adulthood, she allows the reader to share her many personal impressions and experiences as a mother and teacher, her numerous initiatives in areas such as education, public health and the common good, her struggle for justice when she perceived injustice, and her commitment to a Switzerland worth living in.

Growing up in modest circumstances

It is also a look back at the last decades of life in Switzerland: Growing up in the former Swiss farming village of Geroldswil, Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler experienced very different social conditions than today: although both parents were well educated – her mother a secondary school teacher and federally certified gymnastics and sports instructor, her father a doctor of history – she grew up with two sisters and three brothers in modest financial circumstances with a lot of self-supply. Based on the experience that many things were not simply taken for granted – for example, bathing only once a week in a bathtub for everyone for cost reasons, or wastewater treatment was still not a matter of course in the 1960s – the mother taught the children to treat the resources available to us with respect and care long before all the supposedly “green” policies. The whole family also welcomed the introduction of women’s suffrage with satisfaction and as a matter of course – what bothered them about the debate, however, was “the disregard for the role of women, who perceived their motherly duties as their most important task in life. After all, the six children had experienced how important their ‘Mueti’ (Mom) was for their well-being and their development into responsible human beings.” (p. 52f.)

The parents were role models

The influence of the mother, who was consciously and lovingly there for the family, is reflected both in the author’s choice of profession as a teacher and in the importance, she attaches in general to the education and well-being of her own children and the pupils entrusted to her care, the growing generations. She repeatedly emphasises that children need time, recognition, a sense of achievement and love, but also guidance, boundaries and clear information and enlightenment about the dangers they face. Her father, who as a gymnast, winter sportsman and above all a water jumper was also dedicated to promoting public health, has also left a significant mark on his daughter: A water jumper herself, a passionate sportswoman who loves being out in nature and on the move, she, like him, seeks challenges in sport and the incentive to develop her own skills.
  However, physical exercise and sport are close to her heart as an integral part of a healthy life for everyone – not only as a teacher, but also, for example, as a supervisor of “holiday pass courses” for children, in her commitment to “youth without drugs”, or even during the Corona lockdown, when she put together a fitness programme for older people in her living room with her mobile phone, filmed it and put it online. It was always important to the author to show that a healthy life and stimulating education and activities for children are also possible – if not more meaningful – with modest means. A pleasant counterpoint to our consumer-orientated zeitgeist.

Do not be deterred by difficulties

Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler is convinced that, as in other areas, the experience of overcoming a sporting challenge strengthens the children’s self-confidence and reinforces the feeling that they can also master other difficult and challenging situations in life. The title “No distance is too far” should probably also be understood in this sense – not to be deterred by difficulties, but to tackle them and learn from them. Last but not least, this attitude and repeated human encounters and the support of her own family and partnership helped her to survive and overcome various serious and challenging health setbacks.

Lending a hand
when people are in need

Another experience that she took with her from her parental home into her everyday working life and into her political and social commitment is the attitude of lending a hand when a person is in need and the experience of an open house: this is probably also where the courage and spontaneity with which Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler tackled and still tackles many issues are rooted. Even as a teenager, she often spent her holidays “where she was needed” – once in care in a psychiatric clinic or in rural service in a mountain farming family where the mother was absent due to serious illness.

With great commitment
for a drug-free youth

When she was later confronted with the drug problem, she not only read the daily newspapers, but also obtained specialised literature and sought direct contact with drug addicts. It was not least these human encounters that motivated her to work hard for a drug-free youth and real help to enable addicts to overcome their addiction and lead a self-determined life. During her work as a caretaker in Bern’s Kocherpark, she spoke to many addicts and gained a completely different impression of their experiences and thoughts than the media tried to convey: “The addicts usually gathered around Sabina and asked her if she was crying and looking for her child. With tears in her eyes, she then said that she didn’t want to get one of her own children out of here, but wanted to free each and every one of them from this misery. She was convinced that they all longed for a better, drug-free life. Several times Sabina heard the astonished remark that she was the first to shed tears for him or her.” (p. 61f.)

Association ‘Parents against drugs’

It was therefore a matter of course for her to become involved in the Swiss association “Parents against Drugs” and to contribute as a board member and president, but also to the publication of the association’s information bulletin. She also gave an impressive account of her personal visit with this association to the drug therapy community in San Patrignano/Italy.
  “Sabina contrasted the ‘successes’ of the Swiss authorities and politicians’ promotion of the heroin drop-out rate of 7 % with the success of this self-help project in San Patrignano with a recovery rate of 72 %. Why was it not possible for this drug treatment village to be imitated in Switzerland?” – And, the gentle reader wonders, why did many of the equally successful withdrawal centres in this country have to be politically opposed and made impossible with the strongest disinformation and denigration?

As a backpacker to Eritrea

She also sought to form her own opinion on other political issues. Confronted with Eritrean asylum seekers, she became increasingly interested in this country. She travelled to Eritrea as a backpacker in order to gain her own impression by talking to locals and embassy representatives from various Western countries. She was able to draw on her numerous experiences from other trips to various countries – with her husband, the whole family or one of her children. The trip to Eritrea is a good example of how different the approach to a country and its people can be if you take the trouble to gain an impression of the country through personal encounters and an insight on the spot, rather than relying solely on the view conveyed by politicians and the media.

Well-founded criticism
of Swiss school reforms

Time and again, the author also dealt with education policy issues, such as the introduction of school programs as HarmoS or Curriculum 21, of which she also gained her own impression through direct reading. “When studying Curriculum 21, Sabina was shocked. Everything that she had learnt from her own experience as a teacher and as a mother of four and that she considered important, correct and scientifically substantiated was to be thrown overboard with this far-reaching reform.
  Sabina feared the fatal consequences for the schoolchildren. The ideological background of the constructivism propagated by international organisations such as the OECD was obvious.” (p. 336) She criticised the imposition of “self-organised learning”, which already overburdens adults, instead of a pedagogically meaningful, child-appropriate preparation of the school material, the ideological orientation of the curriculum as well as the fact that “the previously valid principle that a curriculum had to formulate binding annual objectives with identity-forming educational content” was abolished”. (p. 339)
  Drug policy and school development are just two areas in which Sabina Geissbühler-Strupler has always actively and fearlessly championed her concerns in the commune, canton and for the good of Switzerland as a whole. For the politically interested reader, the approximately 60-page appendix with the violations in the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern (2007–2021) and letters to the editor on a wide range of issues documents the broad spectrum of her commitment and interests.

Active participation in the
life of the world around us

The title of the book “No distance is too far” and the image of the narrow bridge over abysses symbolically illustrate the author’s encouraging life testimony, which not least shows what a person can overcome in life’s tasks and crises even in difficult times if they have the support of human relationships – their family of origin, their own family and, in particular, a marriage in which both agree on many issues and at the same time accept and support each other in their interests. •