Young Maltesers were established in 1993. It is an important part of the Order of Malta Relief Organization. Today, young Maltesers are active in 25 cities and villages of Lithuania and has about 500 volunteers. In 2018, the General manager of young Maltesers Neringa Sukauskaitė was elected as a leader of the assembly of Malteser International Youth Network.
Young Maltesers are aimed to gather young people together and help them to develop their personalities via different social volunteering experience. Young Maltesers do not only provide assistance for the poor but also are socially responsible and creative through social activity, spiritual education, leisure time together with like-minded people and various training activities.
Young Maltesers regularly organize a social contest for local communities ‘Best charity ideas’ where children and young people are encouraged to introduce and implement the most unexpected ideas that would gather and encourage the community to help those in need. The main goal of the project is to reduce the sense of alienation by giving young people an opportunity to express themselves, spend their time actively and develop their sense of citizenship and community.
Young Maltesers training team helps to strengthen activities and the unity of the organization by using methods of non-formal education. The training team tries to help for every volunteer and conducts courses on a variety of topics: team building, engagement of volunteers, creating new activities, basics of project writing, promotion of self-reflecting topics for spiritual education, developing skills in activities with disabled people, etc.
The annual national event ‘Good Deeds Weekend’ gathers all young Maltesers for inspiring them to make good works all over the country. During this weekend, Young Maltesers can develop their communication skills and remember all the values shared by Maltesers.
Young school paramedics program. This program was created to promote first aid training’s among young people. Pupils are gathered into a team to teach them the most important first aid skills. After that, they can provide adequate first aid in case of a dangerous situation. Young people are provided with all the necessary tools, they constantly learn something new, have a practice and participate in inter-school competitions nationally and abroad.
For more information check www.jaunieji.maltieciai.lt