The Archdiocese of Malta has established a fund of €30,000 to promote hospitality initiatives within parishes and other communities.

It said it will be using the fund to encourage collaborative initiatives within the community between citizens and migrants.

The initiative follows up Pope Francis’s message during his visit to Malta, when he recalled how St Paul had been received with ‘unusual kindness’.

The fund has been themed: ‘Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees’.

 “The Church is inviting religious and civil community organisations – including those led by migrants - to propose seed initiatives that celebrate Malta’s diversity and promote a culture of hospitality, dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and fraternity," the Curia said.

“Seed initiatives are gestures that have the potential to bear much fruit as first steps towards more robust community building. By encouraging initiatives where citizens and migrants exchange different gifts, together we become active participants in building strong communities in a spirit of fraternity, as one family," it added.

”Seed initiatives can include:

• The exchange of cultural patrimony through the arts and creative expression;

• Learning about each other’s traditions, beliefs, and customs;• Opening spaces for respectful dialogue;

• Celebrating the richness of Malta as an island in the Mediterranean with a history of being a ‘safe haven’ for peoples from surrounding continents;

• Integral ecology and the stories engendered by Malta’s natural landscape;

• Initiatives inspired by Pope Francis’s teachings, especially in Laudato Sì and Fratelli tutti;

• Sports and leisure activities and inter-generational encounters across ethnic and cultural divides.

A minimum of €500 will be allocated to each seed-initiative that exemplifies the fund’s aims and objectives up to a maximum of €1,000.

Proposals will be assessed by a board composed of representatives from the Vicariate for Evangelisation, the Secretariat for Parishes, and the Migrants Commission.

For more information about the fund interested applicants are to visit http://www.migrants.mt/fund or send an email on fund@migrants.mt