Human Rights Intern, Author at aditus foundation

“I’m not racist but…”

Hey All! I hope you’re all doing great and as safe as possible during these times.

I would like to start this blog post with a simple question: how many times have you heard someone say “I’m not a racist but…”?

Understanding our work in relation to migrant detention – Interview with our Director

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Hey all! I hope all of you are doing well! Today I will be writing about something that aditus foundation works a lot on: our work on migrant detention. To help me understand this topic and the current situation better I decided to interview our Director, Dr. Neil Falzon.

To start off, I asked him to explain the concept of migrant detention: “Detention is when people’s liberty is entirely taken away from them.”

As he was talking, I started to picture Malta’s detention as a form of imprisonment. Neil agreed with me, and told me that the detention centres “look and feel like prisons, with bars on the windows, guards everywhere and a highly securitised space!” He also added that “detained persons are not allowed to leave the detention centre and live under very strict conditions.”

2021 dreams for the aditus team!

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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!

aditus team Christmas 2020 — Neil, Matthew, Claire, Kasia, Rimaz and Carla @ our Xmas breakfast (2020).

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.

Interview with Richmond Foundation: impact of Covid-19 on mental health

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Hey all! I hope everyone is staying safe and preparing for the winter! On 10 September we celebrated Mental Health Day, so this week I am sharing an interview about the impact of Covid-19 on mental health.

At aditus foundation, we saw a lot of our clients being seriously affected from this pandemic due to their vulnerabilities. We also had clients who, like most of us, found it hard to cope with quarantine and isolation. As stated in this article, the UN Refugee Agency is warning that Covid-19 is having a huge impact on the mental health of refugees, displaced and stateless people. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said:

COVID-19 is not just a physical health crisis but it is now also triggering a mental health crisis. While many refugees and internally displaced people are remarkably resilient and are able to move forward despite having experienced violence or persecution first-hand, their capacities to cope are now being stretched to the limit.
UNHCR

For this week’s blogpost, I interviewed Richmond Foundation. Richmond Foundation is one of Malta’s more prominent NGOs with whom we have an excellent working relationship. We’ve listed it as a supporting organisation for refugees and migrant ssince the organisation often provides them with needed psychological support. As stated on its website, Richmond Foundation offers a wide range of support to anyone experiencing mental health problems and to the people who live and work with them.

My experience as a Human Rights Intern with aditus foundation

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It’s November already and 2020 is almost over, so is my internship. I still remember sending my CV and being interviewed by aditus back in February of this year. The feeling of excitement accompanied by concern that I had regarding whether they will let me in the aditus family and accept me as a human rights intern. Also, whether they would see me suitable for such an internship. Lucky Rimaz, they did, and here I am reaching the end of this amazing full-of-experience as a Human Rights Intern with aditus foundation!

I still remember the first week of the internship: it’s called reading week, where I read about aditus’ previous and current projects. It was in that week where I realized that I am in the right place for human rights. I remember facing challenges in understanding some projects, but that was the aim behind reading week: to read, observe and ask whenever in doubt. Also, by reading up about previous projects, I have built up an idea on how aditus works and the type of projects that I feel keen on being involved in, if possible.