The Fort Issue 05 Feb 2020 | Page 15

CAS So Far...

Mr Stephen Crichton - CAS Coordinator

Migrant Women Association Malta

Malta and Kabqa Uniting for A Brighter Future.

Current Leader: Amra Ryazapova

Successive Leaders: Ilaria Mainetti ,Weam Sunni

Summary of Project: Malta and Kabza Uniting for A Brighter Future is a project that the students at Verdala have taken on. It is a part of the Migrant Women Association Malta. We aim to raise money to help build classrooms for a school in Kabqa Sudan. The area has been a conflict zone for the past 15 years. Communities there live under harsh conditions and extreme poverty. Children in the area struggle to receive a proper education.

In the past, students had attended school under extremely uncomfortable conditions that made getting a good education difficult. Two classrooms have recently been built (2016) thanks to Alumni from the University of Khartoum but there are over 500 school children in the area. Therefore we have a goal of helping at least four other classrooms be built.

This project is important and education should be a priority because it has proved to reduce poverty, foster peace and promote gender equality, among other benefits. It also creates opportunities for employment.

The work we do at school is mostly fundraisers because we need to raise money to fund this project. However, we also do events to support the community of migrants in Malta and spread women’s rights awareness. For example, we have done clothes drives, stationary drives as well as activities where we interact with younger migrants on the island too.

What we’ve done so far:

Our project has really come far since its start up. We had started off with not many people in the school community having heard of us and being limited to just doing fundraisers. We’ve become more involved in projects going that occur on the island and with other organisations.

Some of the fundraisers we’ve done have been very successful. One of the most memorable was the Quiz Night last February, it took quite a bit of work to organize and set up but it was really worthwhile. We had a fantastic turn out and great feedback from everyone who came, and also made around five hundred euros in just one night. We’ve also been involved in events organised by UNHCR and projects where we get to meet face to face with child migrants on the island. We always manage to raise a lot of money during school events, particularly the back to school BBQ. Furthermore, we have organised a number of successful runs and movie nights to fundraise.

A recent development that is also very exciting is our project expansion. We now have a school in Sudan (KCIS) itself that is willing to help us and work with us to build the school. This really shows the importance of our project and its global significance to the community.

Suggested activities to do:

Quiz Night, Back to School BBQ, Selling Bags/Items (ask me about this),Runs + Movie Nights