Congratulations are in order for environmental activist Astrid Vella, Coordinator of Flimkien  għal Ambjent Aħjar, who has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the University Faculty for Social Wellbeing.

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Ramblers Association, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth, and Nature Trust Malta welcomed the Lifetime Achievement Award and congratulated Vella.

Astrid has been a tireless heritage/environment activist for decades and has had several successes, the most recent being when FAA’s court action led to the overturning of Transport Malta’s illegal permit for the ‘Capitanerie’ building in Gżira’s public garden.

The fact that this award came from the Faculty for Social Wellbeing was most significant, confirming FAA’s long-held conviction that cultural heritage is not just about the preservation of buildings and artefacts, but that heritage is a public resource and asset that benefits people’s lives.This is especially of Malta where we live surrounded by heritage and was backed up by a recent Historic England report which for the first time provided empirical evidence that heritage makes a significant contribution to people’s quality of life.

As Coordinator of FAA, Astrid has been very involved with the campaign to have Manoel Island returned to the public, along with Moviment Graffitti and 40 other NGOs.

“I urge our political leaders to act swiftly on their recently announced intention of looking beyond GDP as a measure of our country’s success by tracking wellbeing, disposable income, and education to measure progress over the next 25 years”, said Vella on receiving the award.