KOPIN has launched the first edition of its RAISING AWARENESS FOR DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION (RADC) Newsletter (RADC - 1/2010)!  This newsletter will be published every four months and will be distributed to stakeholders for international development cooperation, awareness raising and global education in Malta and Europe.  

On the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Global Poverty, 17 October 2009, St Gorg Preca College Boys' Junior Lyceum, Hamrun, organised an exhibition about poverty, diversity, climate change and how the latter affects the populations of impoverished countries.  

Students were invited to visit the exhibition and to sign a pledge to show the schools’ solidarity and commitment, thinking for a while of the millions who are forced to live below the poverty line and who live from day to day, not improving their conditions but simply surviving.

The focal part of the activity at School was the preparation of 14 posters, which are part of the “1000 Families” exhibition that has been part of the Building Unity Through Diversity project of KOPIN, to make the students aware about the STOPoverty! Neqirdu l-Faqar! appeal, which is coordinated by KOPIN and supported by SKOP – The National Platform of Maltese NGDOs.  

Global Action Schools to Communities (GASS2C), the Global Education project of KOPIN, provided a free toolkit about climate issues and other resource material about diversity.  

The poster gave students the opportunity to take part in a poster design activity which invites students to make a positive change on their local scale.  An exhibition regarding the subject was also put up in the Exhibition Room held at the school’s premises where students were to show their concern by signing in on a block poster hung in the room. 

This activity was co-ordinated by Ms T. Spiteri Staines, with the help of Mr A. Tanti. 

The STOPoverty! Neqirdu l-Faqar! Campaign, KOPIN and SKOP thank the coordinators & their helpers, the school and the students for their laudable efforts!

For further information visit http://schoolnet.gov.mt/liceohamrun/stoppoverty.html. 

 Joint Project on Capacity Building

The Development and Education Centre European Perspective (DECEP) from Greece and KOPIN, in collaboration with the Maltese (SKOP), the Greek and the Cypriot national NGDO platforms, other leading member NGOs, local authorities (LA) and migrants’ organisations have designed a joint project on capacity building.

The project aims to enhance cooperation in the three countries, build their capacity to become efficient agents of development and to participate in the planning of and the debate over EU development policy.

Further objectives are to establish a strong partnership with migrants’ organisations and local authorities in the 3 countries and to increase the dialogue between development actors in the 3 countries and in Africa as well as enhance interaction with the relevant EU institutions.

The project will tackle the following problems:

ü  Insufficient coordination among NGDOs at the national, regional and European level

ü  Lack of cooperation between NGDOs, LAs and migration organisations in the field of development cooperation

ü  Lack of available information, given the distance of the 3 Mediterranean Platforms from the European centre (Brussels)

ü  Lack of efficient South – North dialogue

ü  Lack of sufficient and efficient participation from this part of the EU NGDOs in the formulation of the EU development policies

The activities of the project, which will probably start in December 2009, include: a field survey on the partners’ experience and knowledge on issues of development, national trainings for networking, lobbying and advocacy, a series of interactive structured dialogue workshops in Greece, Cyprus and Malta with representatives from all partners to develop a concrete strategy of cooperation, a peer to peer mentoring program, study visits of representatives of the 3 platforms to Brussels institutions (e.g. EU Commission, ECOSOC, EU Parliament and CONCORD), the organisation of an international panel discussion and partnership fair in Greece and the establishment of a web-based forum to facilitate the exchange of expertise and best practices.

For more information on the project please contact KOPIN’s project management on dominik.kalweit@maltaforum.org.

From: http://trialog-information-service.blogspot.com/2009/10/events-to-mark-international-day-for.html

Events to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in Malta

As in the past years, in 2009, the STOPoverty! Neqirdu l-Faqar! Campaign with its partners, namely the Maltese NGDO platform SKOP, KOPIN, KKG, Graffitti and KDZ, has organised a series of events to mark theInternational Day for the Eradication of Poverty, held on 17 October, and to provide the opportunity to Stand up! and Take Action!

Starting with the launch of ActionAid’s photographic exhibition "HungerFREE women speak out" about women and the right to food and land at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 15, the Stand Up! Take Action! activity was organised in Malta and Gozo between the 16th and 18th of October. The Maltese public was urged to stand up for one minute to remember the poor of the world and to urge governments to keep their promises. The Stand Up! activity is coordinated by the Schools2Communities project - coordinated in Malta by KOPIN. In collaboration with this project, adiscussion was held about poverty, the Millennium Development Goals and the Mediterranean region on October 17, following the theatre production Ceda l-Imbatt performed by Theatrencore.

During a press conference on October 16 - the World Food Day, Koperattiva Kummerc Gust (KKG) launched itsRight to Food Campaign ‘Kieku l-Ikel Jitekellem’. Two Indian workers participated and passed on a clear message regarding ethical consumption. As part of the campaign and under the slogan "you are what you eat", Moviment Graffitti held its annual activity "Reclaim the World" in Valletta on October 24.

On October 19, a workshop about Art Campaigning Management took place as part of the I SHOP FAIR project of the network of ethical consumers, coordinated in Malta by KKG. Last but not least, a dialogue event on October 24 entitled "Y Standup?" was held to promote participation of young people in discussions on poverty issues locally, nationally, on European and international levels. The young people were invited to discuss their commitment to reducing poverty on all these different levels, while also offering possible routes for policy and for action to church and government authorities.

Information provided by Angie Farrugia, SKOP Malta

By John Paul Cordina - editorial@di-ve.com, Current Affairs -- 19 October 2009 -- 16:30CEST

(Available online: http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=65088)

Despite the economic downturn, an overwhelming majority of EU citizens still strongly support development aid to assist poorer countries, a European Commission study shows.

Figures issued in the Special Eurobarometer study “Development Aid in times of economic turmoil”, which was published on Monday, showed that around 88 per cent of European respondents, and 93 per cent of Maltese citizens surveyed, stressed that assistance to developing countries remained important. 

In addition, 72 per cent believe that European countries should either honour or go beyond their existing aid commitments to the developing world (Malta: 66 per cent), while just 7 per cent believe that the EU’s contributions to the developing world are too big, compared to 30 per cent who believe that it is too small. 

Nevertheless, very few Europeans actually know about the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring environmental sustainability and improving health and education worldwide, all by 2015. Just 24 per cent of Europeans said that they heard about the goals, and the figure was even lower in Malta, at 14 per cent. 

When asked about the biggest challenges facing developing countries, 50 per cent of respondents mentioned poverty: although at 30 per cent, the Maltese were the least likely to agree. The Maltese were, however, most likely to mention poor governance (36 per cent), migration flows (17 per cent) and energy (8 per cent) as the developing world’s greatest challenge. 

The study also shows that around 64 per cent of Europeans cite self-interested motivations behind European countries giving aid, including trade, gaining political allies, and slowing down migration. 

“This poll clearly shows that citizens expect their governments and the EU Commission to dig deep for development financing,” Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Karel De Gucht said. 

“Even in the context of the economic crisis, I appeal again to the EU Member States to stick to their commitments to increase development aid up to €69 billion by 2010 to meet the mid-term target of the Millennium Development Goals.”