Vigilo People

People

John Neville Ebejer

I am the assistant guardian at the Bir Miftuh chapel in Gudja. I became involved with Din l-Art Ħelwa when I participated in a presentation at Bir Miftuh. I then became interested in the site itself, and particularly in the idea that it takes volunteers to open the place to visitors.

In my role at Din l-Art Ħelwa, I really enjoy sharing my enthusiasm and appreciation of our heritage with others. Looking ahead, I am planning to get more involved in setting up animated displays on sites managed by Din l-Art Ħelwa.

Mark Shrimpton

I am the Warden of Torri Xutu in Wied iżZurrieq (please visit us!). I work with a United Nations team of volunteers from all over the world, with a core group of three lovely Maltese guys. We open Torri Xutu most mornings of the week and welcome—during non-Covid and the tourist season—up to 1,000 visitors per month. Essentially, aside from opening the Tower on Fridays, my role is to manage the site, get things fixed when they break and cash up and report at the end of every month.

I got involved with Din l-Art Ħelwa by chance! I was signposted to Din l-Art Ħelwa and met the then president Maria Grazia Cassar (wonderful woman) and two Maltese volunteers. We very quickly gelled and I drew the short straw to become Warden of the fabulously restored Tower.

In my role at Din l-Art Ħelwa I enjoy making fabulous friends from all over the world and guiding visitors from places as far flung as Mongolia and Peru. The Torri Xutu collective has become a close group—we meet at least four times a year, usually for far too much beer or wine. Thus we have become a family.

Regarding future plans, we are beginning to extend personalised events at Torri Xutu. For example, a whole day filming for a children’s television show, an engagement proposal, confirmation photos and, very soon, a wedding.

Allbert Attard

My role at Din l-Art Ħelwa is that of an active Council member. Meetings are regularly organised to discuss both setbacks and achievements, and to plan the way forward. I am also one of the founders of the first regional branch, Din l-Art Ħelwa Mellieha, and am now Warden of the recently restored White Tower which we are regularly opening to the public on Sundays.

It was by sheer coincidence that I became involved with Din l-Art Ħelwa. As part of a group Daniela Cini and myself had established, called ‘For a better environment—Mellieha’, we had decided to have meetings with different entities around the Mellieha area to seek cooperation in our new mission. One such meeting was with Majjistral Park manager Darren Saliba, at which Martin Galea, a long-established executive member of Din l-Art Ħelwa was present. During the meeting we had exchanged our vision of how we can improve the locality of Mellieha from both its heritage and environmental standpoints. We found that we had enough common ground and aspirations to benefit from being part of this well established voluntary organisation, that has already contributed so much to the country with regard to heritage and environment. This is when the idea cropped up of setting up a seperate sub branch of Din l-Art Ħelwa focusing on the Mellieha locality. We are happy to have made the move as this meant we could pursue our plans and aspirations in a more effect and concrete way, benefiting from the great experience that Din l-Art Ħelwa was already very well known for, and keeping on working under the banner of Din l-Art Ħelwa Din l-Art Ħelwa to me was always one of those voluntary organisations that I admired for protecting and doing so much good with its ongoing work towards the preservation of both the built and natural heritage. One cannot but feel proud to be part of such an organisation. My biggest satisfaction is encountering so many people that truly appreciate the hard work that all our volunteers do. I must admit that caring for the White Tower as its warden has taught me so much about what people think, sharing our thoughts about the state of our environment and appreciation for caring for our built heritage. All this has created a very hopeful and positive feeling and energy, that will augur well for the future of the Maltese Islands in this regard. This can only energise us more, to carry out our plans to protect more of Mellieha and the general environment and to push for more heritage buildings to be restored for the enjoyment of all and to improve the quality of our lives. I feel very happy to be involved in the various ongoing afforestation projects in two locations, and am very proud to have invested so much energy to bring forward the trash problem within Mellieha and all around the islands. The time is past when we rely on government services to have our countryside clean and respected, and just pass a remark and complain, waiting for someone to do something about it. I feel that creating a movement for civil society to speak up and start taking matters in their own hands to rectify things is very important if we are to find a solution and stop this degradation with trash dumped in our seas and countryside. We are very happy that this movement is growing with like-minded people. Organising cleanups with companies and schools is probably our best achievement. My plan is to get involved in the restoration of three sites in the Mellieha locality and I am willing to direct my energies towards this, no matter how long it takes. I truly believe it can happen and that will be my focus in the coming months and years.