Maltese
and Finnish NGOs
In
recent years Maltese NGOs have been cooperating with the Villa Elba
International Youth Centre on various projects. Inizjamed and the Third
World Group have teamed up to send a group of young people from
Valletta to Finland. The project, called "You and Me and the
Future", that is being coordinated by George Zarb and Lilian Caruana
with the help of Ms. Iris Pace, headmistress of the primary school in
Valletta who has been supporting the Third World Group’s project
in Valletta for years.
And
in October, Ms. Kristiina Ellonen (right), one of the organizers of the
international meeting on the identity of girls and women held in Kokkola,
will be coming to Malta for six months as a volunteer with Koperattiva
Kummerċ Ġust, Malta’s sole fair trade organization, which
runs the world shop L-Arka in St. Paul’s Street, Valletta. This
project is being funded by the EU through the European Voluntary Service
of the Euromed Youth Action Programme. As part of the preparation for her
voluntary work with the Maltese fair trade cooperative, Kriistina has been
doing work as a a trainee in the fair trade shop of Kokkola.
A
graduate from the Open
University of Jyväskylä, Kristiina Ellonen has studied
international business in Finland and in Denmark; she also has
qualifications in Psychology, Education and Communication. She has done a
lot of work with youths at the Villa Elba International Youth Centre and
in other parts of Finland, coordinating long-term projects and dealing
with other international organizations. Apart from Finnish, which is her
mother tongue, she is fluent in written and spoken English and she can
also speak good Swedish and German.
In
Malta Kristiina will be involved in all aspects of the running of the
world shop L-Arka and the Maltese Fair Trade Cooperative that owns
it, from selling products in the shop to behind-the-scenes administration
and research, and marketing. Because of her experience as an educator she
will be working on educational materials for children and young people.
She will also be putting her knowledge of various languages to good use by
expanding the Maltese cooperative’s already extensive network of links
with foreign organizations.
The
original contact between Kopin and the Villa Elba International Youth
Centre was made possible through the national coordinator for Malta of the
Euro-Mediterranean Youth Action Programm, Mr. Giovanni Buttigieg.
Audrey Aquilina and Adrian Grima
5 September, 2001