Paulo Freire Institute, Malta

Paulo Freire Institute, Zejtun, Malta, was founded by the Society of Jesus in 2008 to supply literacy and employability training and other social services in the region around Zeitun. It has been a laboratory for teaching methods in the Maltese area.

Activities

Freire Institute offers non-formal educational programs in literacy (in Maltese and for basic English) for children, for employability, and for adults, and offers further empowerment courses for mothers including in cooking. Social workers and counselling are provided for individuals and families.The institute is also involved in entrepreneurship training, drivers' education, and in work with African refugees.

Fundraisers like a marathon have come to the aid of the Institute, which raised €30,000 to defray the cost of literacy training for 1,000 adults. The Institute has received gifts of computers for its basic computer literacy program and receives the support of over a dozen collaborating and funding organizations. It has been praised for its methods in literacy training and has published the literacy training book We read, We discuss and We write. It also developed computer software for adult literacy training, as reported by the Maltese government as a part of the European Social Charter.

The Institute participated in a "lifelong learning" project sponsored by the European Commission that involved five participants from as many countries. Freire's contribution was on the experience of African refugees living in Malta.