Back to school: the importance of educators’ well-being By Hot Malta Staff Valletta – While parents scramble for stationery deals in Hamrun’s back-to-school markets and children compare rainbow-coloured lunchboxes, a quieter conversation is unfolding in staffrooms across the archipelago: how are the teachers themselves doing? This year, Malta’s 7,700 state-school educators return to classrooms still…
While Valletta’s streets sizzle and Sliema’s cafés overflow, Gozo quietly turns up the volume on something far more important than summer playlists: mental health. Between June and September, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) parked its colourful pop-up gazebo in village squares from Nadur to Xlendi, launching a grassroots awareness blitz that swapped bureaucratic…
**MCAST Unveils First-Ever ‘Positivity Toolkit’ to Help Maltese Students Beat Exam Stress and Winter Blues** Paola – While most students were still shaking sand out of their backpacks after the long Easter weekend, lecturers at Malta’s largest further-education college were quietly rolling out a home-grown weapon against anxiety. On Tuesday morning, inside a sun-lit atrium…
**Game-Changers of the Heart: New Mental Wellbeing Programme Launches for Special Olympics Malta Athletes** Valletta – In a sun-splashed courtyard overlooking the Grand Harbour, Special Olympics Malta athletes, coaches and families gathered yesterday to launch the island’s first mental wellbeing programme tailored specifically for athletes with intellectual disabilities. Dubbed “Qalbna, Qalbna” (“Our Hearts, Our Hearts”),…
**Malta, Pride and the Unfinished Psyche of a Traumatised Nation** The rainbow flags were still fluttering above Strait Street when the WhatsApp messages started circulating. “Did you see what they did to the Pride decorations in Valletta?” Within minutes, photos appeared: rainbow bunting torn down, posters defaced with religious slogans, a young man’s face bloodied…
**New Barrier and Gate Planned for Mount Carmel Back Entrance: Residents Divided Over Access vs Security** The back entrance to Malta’s historic Mount Carmel Hospital is set for a controversial makeover, with plans to install a new barrier and gate system that has sparked heated debate among Attard residents and mental-health advocates. The proposed structure,…
**Eight Seconds and Dropping? Can You Hold Out Longer?** It’s 7:43 a.m. on a Tuesday in Msida. The bus app swears your ride is “8 min away,” yet the dot on the map hasn’t budged since Żebbuġ. You open TikTok “just quickly.” Eight seconds later—yes, researchers at the University of Malta measured it—you’re scrolling past…
**From the Gospel: A cross-shaped paradox** Sunday morning in Żejtun, and the church bells are ringing in that particular Maltese cadence—half celebration, half lament. Inside the basilica, Fr. Rene’ is threading his homily through the one story that still stops parishioners mid-bite on their post-Mass ftira: the crucifixion as divine victory. “A paradox,” he calls…
**Academic Demands Answers After Child Mental Health Unit ‘Fails Malta’s Most Vulnerable’** A leading Maltese psychologist has broken ranks to demand a full public inquiry into “systemic failures” at the country’s only in-patient child and adolescent mental health unit, warning that children as young as nine are being restrained, sedated and discharged prematurely because beds…
**Family Tragedy in Birkirkara Sparks Mental Health Debate After Son Accused of Assaulting Father** A 34-year-old Birkirkara man has been charged with grievously injuring his 67-year-old father in what court officials described as a “violent outburst” that left the elderly man hospitalized with multiple fractures. The incident, which occurred in the family’s traditional Maltese townhouse…
**Awakened Realities: Anton Sammut and the Soul of Consciousness** In a quiet corner of Valletta, where the limestone walls echo centuries of whispered prayers and revolution, Anton Sammut sits cross-legged on a woven ġbejna mat, eyes closed, breathing in the scent of sea salt and incense. Around him, a small group of Maltese seekers—teachers, artists,…
A conversation about ‘Fallen Angels’ – and why Valletta is talking about it over pastizzi By Sarah Galea, Hot Malta contributor “Mela, have you seen the angels?” The question ricochets across Republic Street every morning this week, whispered between kiosk owners, debated by pensioners on the City Gate benches, and posted on TikTok by teens…
