A 25-year-old San Ġwann man who set up a Catholic development NGO to help develop living facilities for disadvantaged youth in Kenya has been named the Kerygma Movement's Youth of the Year.
James Borg Cumbo was moved to set up Karibu! Malta after a 2012 youth exchange to Finland left him feeling that there was more to life than what happened on Maltese shores.
An initial attempt to get funding to send a group of youths to Kenya was unsuccessful, but rather than give up the group dug into their own pockets and went ahead with their plans.
The project was so successful that Mr Borg Cumbo and his friends decided to make the project a recurring one. Karibu! Malta was set up, with Mr Borg Cumbo being appointed president.
The group has sent Maltese youths to Kenya for four consecutive years now and is planning another trip for this coming July. In the course of these visits, the youths have helped locals in Kenya develop kitchen and toilet facilities, and have bankrolled the construction of rooms to be used as classrooms and another to be used as a chapel.
Karibu! Malta is now planning a three-year project in Mbaoni, a remote village in Kenya's coast province. The project will involve the construction of an 11-class school with three offices and five toilet pits and is expected to cost €90,000.
President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca congratulated Mr Borg Cumbo and other finalists for their work and described them as peace-builders of the community.
The annual award is given out every year in honour of the memory of Rudolph Saliba, who served as the Kerygma Movement's first president. The Kerygma Movement is a Catholic organisation that forms part of the international 'Youth With A Mission' movement. It seeks to spread the Catholic word and encourage cooperation between Catholic and Protestant faiths.
Other nominees for this year's Youth of the Year award were Alan Joseph Buhagiar from Zabbar, Fabio Cini from Żebbuġ, Gozo, Sarah Magro from Vittoriosa, the Mellieha Youth Group and Sara Portelli from Birkirkara.