FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES
The table is set and Mejja’s song “Siskii (Kamote)” blasts from Alec’s speaker. Pam’s perfectly round chapatis are still warm. Fresh off the pan, they will be soaked in Pina’s Kenyan beef stew. Everyone in the kitchen is dancing to the irresistible beat of Kenyan Genge. A gentle whiff of coriander and lemon emanates from Joanne’s Kachumbari, just as David and Jo announce that their grilled fish is ready. Dinner is about to be served!
As we finally gather around the long table in the Valletta Design Cluster dining hall, the day's hustling and bustling slowly gives way to the warm comfort of silent mutual trust. After five hours of sharing recipes, stories, challenges, talking and connecting, quiet now takes over. Everyone is enjoying what feels like a little bite of home.
On Saturday, 2nd November 2024, 25 people, most of them members of the Kenyan community in Malta – but not only, came together for the second edition of “Recipes for Change: cooking up awareness to combat human trafficking in Malta”, a project implemented by the Cross-Cultural International Foundation (CCIF) together with the respective communities of foreign nationals in Malta. The previous – and first - iteration of the project had taken place on Sunday, 22nd September, with the participation of the Botswana and the Zimbabwean community.
The project’s idea is simple. We come together to cook, talk, and thereby create a space of trust that allows the participants of the event, which include mainly Kenyan nationals and some CCIF volunteers, to discuss the challenges faced by the community members, both collectively and individually. These conversations range from the personal challenges of being new in a country and navigating how to find certain ingredients, to more complex issues such as labour rights, the housing market as well as the day-to-day experiences of racism and discrimination.
The effect these cooking events aim to achieve is twofold. First, we create the opportunity for the community to strenghten and empower itself from within by nurturing community ties and incresing collective awareness over the most recurring and pressing issues. Second, we aim to create an opportunity for individuals to feel empowered to protect themselves and, when needed, seek help. By doing so the project wants to break the cycle of loneliness and fear, to reduce social and economic isolation. Because fear, loneliness and poverty are precisely what abuse and exploitation thrive on.
In other words, “Recipes for Change” and CCIF more broadly aim to fight human trafficking, abuse and exploitation through awareness, connection and mutual support. CCIF’s role in this is to facilitate encounters and connections. We organise the venue and coordinate the event. Yet, it is the participants themselves, the community, those who suggest and prepare the dishes, who choose the music, and who - if they feel like it - share their recipes and stories.
The project is still taking its first baby steps. Yet, after only two editions, we were overcome by its positive impact. Only five hours into knowing each other, the participants, including the Kenyan community, some members of the Botswanan and Zimbabwean community who came to share the meal, as well CCIF volunteers, went from being a bunch of individuals to being a community bound by shared memory, shared skills, and an invisible thread of companionship and support. Or as Hassan, who arrived in Malta for his studies only a week ago, eloquently described it, “We became each other’s social capital”.
Shanti Walde
Contact details:
CCIF – Cross Cultural International Foundation
24 Triq Bormla, Paola, PLA 1900, Malta