#KeepingUpWithTheInterns
Hi All! I hope you are all doing great!
We all can say, “what a year 2020 has been!” For sure, it’s going to be a year that all of us will remember! It was a year like no other. As the year was coming to an end, here at aditus we met to think about what happened during the year in office and also at our homes. We also shared our hopes for what we wish to see happening during 2021. These are the 2021 dreams for the aditus team!
2021 is going to be a very special and fruitful year for our Team: our 10th anniversary! We are all planning to celebrate and organise several activities…of course all depending on the current pandemic situation.
Collectively we all have goals that we wish to achieve in relation to the NGO. A common dream is to see the Government changing its approach to NGOs.
NGOs form an integral part of a functioning democracy, not merely to provide valuable services but to provide professional input and advocacy on specific issues. This role needs to be acknowledged, even where we agree to disagree on our approaches.
Neil Falzon, Director
On the other hand, Carla, our Assistant Director: “the ‘big’ achievements, such as a huge litigation win, and also what one would call the ‘smaller’ achievements of successfully accessing a service for an individual, are equally essential, meaningful and important.”
We could all agree on that, but Claire – Legal Officer – also added that as an asylum lawyer she would like to contribute to a change in the detention policy for asylum-seekers:
Applicants for international protection are currently automatically and systematically detained upon arrival, which is a total violation of EU law.
Claire Delom, Legal Officer
During this discussion we also talked about the future of our projects and that’s when our Programmes Officer, Kasia said that she would be doing her best “to provide effective financial management and support our legal team with the administrative side of projects obligations (despite different challenges this year might bring).”
I also had a chat with the other interns: Diane, Christine and Zoe. We all agreed that one of our aims is to develop, even further, our legal knowledge regarding asylum-seekers and other relevant issues which aditus stands for, growing as interns in the process. This would allow us to assist more clients, and more effectively.
After talking so much about our work we shifted our discussion to a more personal level. We talked about how there is nothing better to wish for than good health! We all agreed that in 2021 we really wish to be able to properly meet the people who matter most to us. “It’s been very painful to meet everyone at a distance. I miss the gatherings that used to bring us together. I really hope 2021 will allow us to start re-living these moments, once more.
Kasia and Claire both said how they wish to be able to go home more often to see friends and family. Both Christine and Diane said that their top 2021 dream is to finalise their dissertations and eventually graduate. Also we couldn’t agree more on how much we wish for this pandemic to pass and to have a good holiday!
I wish you all good health for this coming year. I hope that all your dreams and wishes will come true! Of course, I hope the 2021 dreams of the aditus team also come true 😉
I will see you in the coming weeks with my next blog post!
Take care and stay safe!
Matthew xx
#KeepingUpWithTheInterns is part of our project Marginalised Persons as Human Rights Volunteers. If you want to follow Matthew and Rimaz as they navigate their way through Malta’s human rights landscape, subscribe to our News & Updates or follow them on our social media pages!
This project has been funded through the Voluntary Organisations Project Scheme managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector on behalf of Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sports and Voluntary Organisations within the Ministry for Education and Employment. This project/publication reflects the views only of the author, and the MEDE and the MCVS cannot be held responsible for the content or any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
