A team of four students from St Benedict's College Girls' Secondary, Tarxien, came first in the 2008-2009 Pedro Arrupe Award, an educational project set up by JRS Europe aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance for refugees and forced migrants by engaging young people creatively in this issue.
The students' project, entitled 'A Journey to Freedom' was awarded joint first place in the under-16 category together with a project submitted by a team from Spain.
The Maltese project consisted of model showing two parts of land separated by a stretch of water. A boatful of migrants are seen between the two lands; one migrant is seen floating in the sea. On one part of the land is the sign 'Africa - Homeland', where, next to village huts, a migrant is seen sprawled on the ground bleeding next to a soldier, while on the other part of land is the sign 'Refugee camps' amid detention centres and razor wire.
The judges decided that the Maltese students' project "displayed an exceptional knowledge of the subject, addressing the issue in both an innovative and refreshing manner, and providing an accurate account of the refugee and forced migrant issue in their respective societies".
Expanding on the judges' comments, JRS-Europe media officer Michael Donohoe told The Sunday Times, "the sculpture presented the refugee/forced migrant question in quite simple terms - not weighed down by recycled facts or statistics. This sort of stark imagery shows empathy with the migrants' situation, and the judges found it refreshing to see the issue pared down to its fundamentals - humans trying to escape death in their homeland, dying at sea, only to face imprisonment in a foreign land.
"Furthermore, the importance of the question posed by the project cannot be understated. Forced migrants/refugees are not safe at home, they are not safe at sea, and they are not even safe on European shores. So where can they go? Is society at large disregarding these vulnerable people?"
The competition was launched in October 2008 and attracted 64 entries from 19 secondary schools in 10 European countries by the April 24 deadline. Mr Donohoe said the Maltese project was one of the more unique entries.
"Sculpture was not explored by many other students, with most opting for video presentations, Powerpoint presentations, artwork, boardgames, and webpages," he said.
The competition winners have been invited to present their projects at the European Parliament in Brussels on July 8 at a ceremony hosted by MEP Carlos Iturgaiz. Each winning group of students will deliver 10-minute Powerpoint present-ations regarding their project. The ceremony will also be addressed by Mr Iturgaiz, Wolfgang Felber from the Jesuit European office, and UNHCR European Affairs officer Blanche Tax, who will present the award.
The students will go on to visit a summer camp for young landmine victims in Ohrid, Macedonia. The camp, which was set up in 2001 by JRS-Kosovo, provides psycho-social support to 32 Albanians aged between 10 and 26, who were injured in accidents between 1999 and 2007, and come to the camp every summer from different parts of Kosovo.
Mr Donohoe explained that the camp "will give the young students the opportunity to see the human consequences of conflict, that however far away wars may seem, there is one constant - human suffering. Exposure to realities such as these may help them see the world differently, or just simply plant a small seed of thought in their head".
The students will join in the activities prepared for the young victims, which will enable them to find out about their lives and the challenges they face.
The daily summer camp programme includes activities such as football, volleyball, swimming in Lake Ohrid, and for the younger ones, workshops organised by JRS-Kosovo. The students will also visit other NGOs in the region, mostly operating out of Skopje.