Search results for: covid (Page 2)

Maltese bobbin lace … What comes to mind when you think of it? Perhaps watching your great grandmother working lace when you were a child, perhaps listening to stories about where your mother’s most prized tablecloth came from, memories of hawkers at Gozo selling their lace products or images of British royalty wearing our Bizzilla. Even as lace-making slowly and silently fades into our cultural history, we all have some story to tell or some experience to share.  St Jeanne Antide Foundation’s SOAR service launched a project in late 2019 called A Stitch in Time, to bring women together, especially women who have faced difficultRead More…

I recently had the pleasure of meeting up with Ms. Elaine Borg, a General Surgeon with a sub-speciality in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery. She is highly qualified and experienced surgeon who has spent the last few years working both in Malta and in the UK. A lovely, very down-to-earth person. We chatted about women’s health issues, travel, food, cooking, children, COVID, her PhD, and the inevitable guilt of motherhood. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her in person because, although Ms. Borg is very busy, she tells me, “I appreciate face-to-face contact even more since COVID!” I had a lot of questions for Ms. Borg because I’m alwaysRead More…

In a world where we’re always racing against time, trying to keep up with the hustle and bustle of life, being able to incorporate the much-coveted work-life balance has never been so crucial. Gone are the days when a household can have children and live on ‘just’ one salary, unless it’s an excellently paid job. Of course, even for those who are childless, the need to be able to juggle work-related duties with familial or personal ones still remains. And let’s not forget time to ourselves, which, let’s face it, is more often than not, overlooked. This is precisely why everyone dreams of having aRead More…

birth

Up till 70 or so years ago most births happened at home. This usually meant that the familiar village midwife would be approached some time in pregnancy and simply notified that she would be called during the time span of early or late in a particular month. No due date. Simply some time around…. ‘when the baby knocks, I’ll just open the door for him!’ When the baby did ‘knock’, there would usually be a couple of other experienced mothers in the house, obviously chosen by the mother herself. Husbands wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near. They know nothing about births. The trait in the maleRead More…

Paulina Dembska

It’s 6am, on one of those glorious mornings after a night of rain, and I am doing my daily walk, the day after Paulina Dembska ’s rape and murder. All of a sudden I am afraid, as I realise I’m walking alone. I am afraid for myself and for those who identify as women in our country. I am afraid for one of my daughters who had to run home at night, as a man was following her, after being touched and harassed on a bus while everyone there turned a blind eye. I am afraid, for another one of my teenage daughters, who myRead More…

it's a scary world after all

Sometimes, without anything happening prior, I feel a sense of being unsafe lingering on. It happens at random; I could be having the most amazing day of my life yet something suddenly hits me in the stomach and I instantly start feeling overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. Sometimes it’s insecurity: not truly understanding why anyone would care about my existence or why it’s useful for me to even try to communicate, or to even attempt to get out of bed each morning. Sometimes it’s the feeling of wanting my childhood back. It wasn’t perfect, and there are so many things I would love toRead More…

self employment

One of the most difficult things for a woman to do is keep up with her career and have children. Others decide that being an employee is not their thing and having their own business or extra income at the side is the way to go. For me it was all of the above. Having a son at the age of 32 was a very different experience from when I had my daughter at 18. Our parents were now elderly; having them babysit our son was not an option and he was not an easy child at all – tantrums galore, so we needed toRead More…

part time nursing students

Earlier on this week, MUMN chief Paul Pace claimed that an average of 3 nurses are quitting their jobs at Mater Dei Hospital every week. Burnout, stress, and lack of new recruits seem to be contributing towards the problem. Meanwhile, nursing students following a degree on part time basis have been discriminated for the past 4 years. I write this with a heavy heart in the name of all part time students whose desperate pleas have been ignored for the past 3 years by parliament ministers, committees and organisations. Four years ago the possibility of following a Nursing Degree on Part Time Day basis wasRead More…

judging prejudice

“Being unique is the best thing you can do” “You should not judge others” I bet it’s not the first time you heard similar statements. But have you ever stopped and wondered about the connection between such statements? Well, let me tell you a story which, I believe, would help you understand what I mean when I say ‘connection’. A few weeks ago, before the new scholastic year commenced, my family and I decided to go on a ‘lovely’ shopping trip called “uniform hunting”, or better known this year as “going for uniforms but after arriving we find out there are only a few left”.Read More…