HSBC Water Programme showcases its work in Africa to the migrant community in Malta
HSBC Water Programme – Catch the Drop reached out to and embraced the migrant community in Malta by sponsoring a ground-breaking initiative called Explorers.
Organised by the Migrant Women Association Malta and curated by Moira Agius in collaboration with Spazju Kreattiv - St James Cavalier and a handful of others, Explorers aimed to tackle fundamental aspects of integration through a series of intercultural art workshops and an interactive art installation.
In addition to financially supporting the project, six colleagues from HSBC Malta who visited Ghana last year recalled their experience when witnessing for the first time in their life how communities with shortage of clean water cope with their daily challenges.
The HSBC Water Programme has been implementing projects in Ghana since 2012, working with the global NGO, WaterAid, to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. The HSBC Malta staff trip was part of the five-year HSBC Water Pro- gramme.
Although there were no Ghanian attendees, all participants commended HSBC’s initiatives in Africa and hoped that someday people will do the same in their respective hometowns.
A participant, Fatima (name changed to protect identity), said: “Water is very important. Without water there is no life. The journey to Europe is very difficult and one of the reasons is the lack of water. In my journey, we were 50 people, and we only had 2 litres of water to live on.”
“I saw people desperately crying for water. I also saw people dying with thirst during the journey. If you are a woman asking for water a lot of time, they sexually abuse you to give you water,” she added.
Moira Aguis, who lent her energies to realise Explorers, commented: “Listening to Fatima’s story was a moving experience. Although she does not implicitly state that she was abused, she implies that she knows women who were abused. I am now exploring the possibility of creating an artistic performance that will showcase the relationship between migrants’ journeys, women, and water.”