Maltese-Australians' Youth Committee NSW

ng and dedicated our work in our spare and personal time. From the first day we met, we started working vigorously towards our short-term goal, and that was to get to the Convention for Maltese Living Abroad held in Malta this year in April. For those that aren’t aware of what the convention is about; it is an event that is organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malta every 5 years, where Maltese diaspora from around the world, go to Malta to meet and discuss their achievements and what they see for the future in their local Maltese communities, as well as recognition from the Maltese Government and seek for their help and support across the Maltese diaspora. We have held a series of events and fundraising stalls throughout the year to raise money to help aid all of us to attend the convention in Malta. Our first official event was our MAYC launch held in July of last year. We had a lot of support, with donations made by the local Maltese community and greater community alike which we used to raise money through raffle tickets on the day. We drew in just over 100 people here, at La Valette, where with the help of LV staff we organised a 3 course meal and entertainment. We were able to show case our short term goal in relation to the Convention, and the work we wanted to do post-convention. From there, we had the utmost support from the whole of the Maltese community. When associations held festi and other events, we were invited to attend and we were offered the time and/or space to ‘do our thing’ by promoting MAYC. We organised sausage sizzles at our local supermarkets, sold over 200 boxes Cadbury chocolates and also came up with our own merchandise, selling t-shirts with our MAYC logo on them. In March of this year, we held our second major event – MAYC’s Fete, held here at La Valette. Doors opened at 10am and closed at 5pm. The fete consisted of a number amount of stalls, a car show, our local fire brigades came down with their fire trucks, animal shows, a play pen and face painting for the kids, a chocolate wheel with lots of amazing prizes as well as a raffle draw with over 20 major prizes to be won, donated again by the Maltese community and greater community. MAYC ran two BBQs on the day, with LV staff again assisting by selling pastizzi and running the bar. LV staff helped us on a whole on the day also, and their efforts should be recognised. We had 3 major acts for entertainment throughout the day. We also wanted the fete to have a cultural side where as well the main entertainment organised for the day. We we also had our own Ghana Fest in the main area of the centre with someone dressed in an ghonella floating in and around the fete. The day proved to be a great success, with over 1000 people walking through LV’s doors. It is to be recognised that a lot of hard work took place behind the scenes to make the day as successful as it was, but also a lot of it would not have come together without the support made by LV and the community on a whole. Overall, MAYC raised enough to pay just under half of everyone’s ticket to Malta for the Convention. Throughout the year, MAYC had a lot of attention given through local Maltese media. MAYC was interviewed twice by SBS Radio, we were interviewed again by the radio program run by the MCC, we featured in the eNewsletter the Voice numerous times and even featured in Maltese news in Malta! We were interviewed by TVM and ONE whilst we were in Malta. Our page, which is proven to be our main means of communicating with not only the younger generation Maltese, but also with Maltese diaspora reaches 2500 followers to date. Our FB page is where we keep everyone up to date with what MAYC is currently up to, what is happening in and around our Maltese community here in Australia, as well as anything and everything happening in Malta. We share cultural and historical information about our motherland, in hope to keep alive what we have here in Australia. Lastly, our attendance at the Convention for Maltese Living Abroad was well received. We received a lot of encouragement from the Maltese diaspora and those living in Malta. So much so, that we were often asked our opinion during hot debates on where our Maltese diaspora was heading. Most importantly, we presented a paper. This paper was aimed to speak on behalf of all Maltese youth in Australia. To do this we convened an online survey were over 200 people responded. We based our paper on three core points by asking the question, ‘how do we engage the younger generation Maltese?’. These three core points were:
1.What the reciprocal benefits of dual citizenship are and promoting these to Maltese-Australian youth;
2.How to establish networks between Australian and Maltese educational institutions, promoting study and exchange partnerships between universities, and highlighting the opportunity of Australian-Maltese High School Students to study Maltese language for their Higher School Certificate in Australia;
3.Establishing partnerships between the Maltese and Australian Governments to promote Maltese culture in Australia, including creative arts and sports festivals featuring Maltese and Maltese-Australian artists alike, and promoting tourism for Australian-Maltese to visit Malta. From these 3 points, we put forward recommendations on how we can address them. We also put forward a motion to hold an extra day at future conventions dedicated specifically to the youth, in which we succeeded, and as of next convention, this extra day will take place. We also networked and met with many key people in Maltese communities across the diaspora as well as meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the Parliamentary Secretary for Youth to discuss how we can work together for a better future. We also met Her Excellency Marie Louise Coleiro Preca. We feel we made a big impact at the convention, and hope now, post-convention that we can work towards bigger and better things. We hope to create a youth group, with social activities for younger generation Maltese to attend, and from there create events that involve our younger Maltese community. We hope to work towards building bridges between Australia and Malta, and having the Maltese Government help support us in any future projects we decide to work on. Since Malta in April, half of our group decided to stay on in Malta for a few months, and only just recently arrived back. As mentioned earlier, with our everyday lives, working fulltime, we have not yet met properly as a whole group to discuss way forward from here. Once we meet, we plan to discuss a clearer vision for MAYCs future, so that our committee is as effective as possible in engaging with Maltese youth here in Australia and abroad. We hope to continue with the support we have been receiving. We hope that all of you continue to support our group MAYC, and our younger generation of Maltese as a whole, to continue the hard work all of you do and have done to be where we are today.

[Updated 4.11.2015]