[WATCH] ‘Give children the space, and they will flourish’

'Give children the space and they will flourish'

Walking through the colourful doorway into the President’s private garden at San Anton Palace on a typical Saturday morning, it’s with a sense of intrusion that I enter a world seemingly entirely governed by children.

The green grass is littered with small groups of children engaged in some exciting activity, under the watchful but unintimidating eyes of adults who have volunteered to share stories with the children about what they do in life, all against a dream-like backdrop of colourful flowers and the occasional peacock from the San Anton gardens strolling casually by.

“Give children the space, and they will undoubtedly flourish,” an organiser of events at the President’s Secret Garden, Angela Caruana, says as she shows people around the gardens to give us a peak into the different activities that are taking place here two hours every Saturday from 10am.

And flourish they do. It is impressive meeting gifted and promising young children who participate in the activities, sharing their experiences in a confident and inspiring way.

President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca first opened the doors of her private garden at San Anton Palace to children last year, allowing them to use the space to play and learn through play. A number of activities, including weaving, reading and storytelling activities among others were introduced after the success of the 2015 edition, and one of the most anticipated additions was a little activity called “Fuq is-Sufan, Ma’…” (‘On the sofa, with…’),

Here, children between the age of six and 12 are given the opportunity to interview an ambassador or diplomat, about anything they can think of, making for an altogether new experience for those being interviewed… although perhaps, the questions make for the same kind of inquisitiveness they may be used to during other interviews.

Sitting in a circle around a white sofa, last Saturday the children quizzed the second secretary at the embassy of the state of Qatar, Ibraheim Nasser El-Nesf, about his favourite colours, pastimes and other such trivia. But as they eased into the interview, the children became less aware of the official role of the person sitting in front of them, and started interacting and reacting unreservedly to the things they heard. 

“The children got particularly animated once I mentioned that Qatar would be hosting the World Cup in 2020,” he told us at the end of the interview session. “It was a lovely experience and it reminded me of my own curiosity and musings as a child,” he said, adding that he was very willing to participate in similar events again.

El-Nesf explained that he felt such activities were important to give children the opportunity to learn about different cultures and countries. 

“Meeting new people in high positions in this context can also help to encourage children to dream big and make plans for their own future and their countries,” he added. 

Speaking to the children, I learn that they had been particularly touched by the way El-Nesf made them feel at ease and important.

“Stripping these important figures of the formal setting that usually characterizes them, shows children that we are all essentially the same,” Angela Caruana says, explaining that the children often remarked about how similar the cultures described to them were.

The children tell me they are happy to find out about El-Nesf’s appreciation of football and local dishes like rabbit, but above all, value the experience for the honesty he displayed in his answers.

Over the past weeks, the children, who are identified and chosen for the interviews by their respective schools, have interviewed President Coleiro Preca herself, Italian Ambassador Giovanni Umberto De Vito and German Ambassador Gudrun Saga.

“The experience has helped me to overcome my shyness and to learn more about other countries just in case I decide to travel,” 11-year-old Jerome Cachia said, adding that the activity had also presented him with the opportunity to develop another skill he loves dearly: photography. 

“I started practising photography last year, when I began attending events at the secret garden,” he says. His photos have been uploaded to the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society’s website. 

Ella Mifsud, 11, who helps Jerome as a photographer, says the experience had given her the opportunity to discover new subjects and it gave her a platform to distribute her photos. “I would like to study photography and practise it professionally when I’m older,” Ella says.

Ella and Jerome are not the only two to discover other skills during the activity, as the President’s Garden also has its own resident blogger. Sharon Cilia, 11, has always enjoyed writing, and she sits by the ambassador listening to the questions being asked to then blog about what the children have been told and upload them on the website. 

Sharon wants to write a book of essays that will include blogposts from the sessions. She enjoys writing both fiction and non-fiction, in both English and Maltese.

Elisa Cutajar, 8 and Shanielee Ciappara, 7, who both participated in the interview, say the President’s secret garden has helped them discover weaving.

“Weaving is relaxing and now we have progressed significantly, considering the short amount of time we have been practising it,” Elisa says.

“I like to try different patterns and it’s very satisfying to see the way your designs change over time,” Shanielee says.

Fiercely proud of their work and thankful to the volunteers who steer children in their activities, the children are enthusiastic about the future interviews and skills they might learn about, brainstorming questions as we go along in our chat.

Angela Caruana says the activities organised place an emphasis on fun and games as the basis to any skill learned, and that volunteers wanted to continue expanding the skills taught as well as to invite more children to try new fields of activity.

“One of our upcoming projects is to create a moving library that can be wheeled out to the children as they read on the lawns of the garden,” Caruana says, adding that children could contribute to the library itself by creating little booklets themselves during the sessions. The booklets, known as “Books of Wellbeing”, contain little bits of advice about what makes them happy. 

“Our idea is to obtain donated books for the library besides these booklets, and to allow children to take the books home with them,” Caruana says. It is a system that just emphasizes what fun reading is.