Inizjamed has placed second in the annual Prize given to youth organizations by the Department of Youth and Sport of the Parliamentary Secretariat in the Ministry of Education and Culture. The prize was for work carried out in the year 2000 and was presented to the three award winning organizations during the edition of the popular TV programme Xarabank of 6 April, 2001.

 The mediterranean cultural organization Inizjamed, founded in 1998, bases it cultural projects on social and political commitment through art and culture in general. One of its projects carried out in 2000, the year for which the Prize was given, was Fabbrikazzjoni, a project in which young artists, writers and factory workers explored the reality of life in a factory and presented it to the public in March and August.

In April 2000, Inizjamed started its "Shaba Gawwi" ("A Cloud of Gulls") two-year project inspired by the figure of the gull in the poetry of Marjanu Vella and by his social commitment. This project has already been presented in public twice, once in the place in Sliema where Fr. Marjanu worked for over thirty years and once at St. James Cavalier. A thirty-minute documentary about Marjanu Vella and the gull will be screened on national television in the coming weeks.

In summer, Inizjamed organized the evening of poetry, theatre and music, "Kitbiet mill-Mediterran" ("Writings from the Mediterranean") during the summer festival Evenings on Campus. The guests of the evening were Sardinian singer-songwriter Mario Brai, actor Antonino Praticò and poet Massimo Barilla. Actors Marcelle Teuma and Ray Calleja and percussionist Renzo Spiteri also took part in the evening. Inizjamed also held meeting in Malta with Brazilian poet and activist in favour of land reform, Jelson Oliveira, and Costanza Ferrini, an expert on contemporary Mediterranean literature.

On the international front, in 2000 two projects in which Inizjamed is a partner were approved by the EU within the framework of the programmes "Youth" and "Culture". These projects, "You and Me and the Future" and "Al Buio. Per Chi non Vede l'Arte", are being managed by organizations in Finland and Catania. In April, Bernard Micallef was chosen to represent Inizjamed and Malta at the first edition of the major biennial exhibition called Big Torino 2000. Morevor, Inizjamed took part in meetings held in Barcelona and Biel, Switzerland.

Inizjamed received the second prize together with Aegee. The first prize was won by ECO.

 

Adrian Grima

April 2001