Our Shared Values
These values guide our festival in spirit and in practice. They shape how we gather, how we create, and how we care for one another—across cultures, backgrounds, and stories.
Named and conceptualised with the Refugee Week Malta Advisory Group in 2025, these values build on the vision and values of Refugee Week UK, thoughtfully reimagined for Malta’s context, communities, and lived realities.
Celebrating Shared Differences
We honour the richness of our differences. Within Malta’s refugee and asylum-seeking communities and far beyond there are many perspectives, languages, and lived experiences. By embracing our shared humanity and our uniqueness, we challenge assumptions, disrupt stereotypes and invite new ways of understanding.
Welcoming Spaces
Everyone deserves to feel safe, included, and seen. Taking belonging as a starting point, we work to create spaces that are open and accessible to all—removing barriers to participation and encouraging meaningful dialogue. When people feel like they belong, everything else becomes possible.
Amplifying Every Voice
Every story matters. We actively include and uplift diverse voices—especially those shaped by intersecting identities and complex journeys. We make sure that the right support is in place to create accessible entry points for all who wish to participate, so that no one is left behind or unheard.
Growing Through Community Leadership
Refugee Week Malta grows from the community. We are shaped by the voices, needs, and aspirations of those around us—especially people with lived experience of displacement. Guided by those who know the journey, needs and the communities best, we move forward through collaboration and trust.
Sharing and Caring in Unity
We build bridges through sharing. When Maltese and migrant communities come together—through story, food, celebration, and conversation—we find community in each other. By being present, opening up and showing care, we grow a culture of connection and shared responsibility.
Empowering Storytelling
Stories connect us. They’ve been the language of humanity since the beginning - bridging time, place and difference. We believe in the power of storytelling to shift perceptions, reclaim identity, and celebrate the full richness of people’s lives. Through art, culture, and dialogue, we make space for people to be seen, heard, and honoured .