Small Steps, Big Impact: Eman Borg on Youth, Sport, and Environmental Action!

Eman Borg identifies Malta’s key environmental issues—pollution, overdevelopment, and traffic—which negatively affect youth's physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Borg believes sport can be a powerful tool for environmental education, calling it a universal language that can engage youth in understanding climate issues through active, non-formal learning methods like clean-ups and community events.

To address environmental challenges, he urges youth workers to prioritise collaboration and unified action over fragmented efforts. His key message is to act, no matter how small the initiative—collective small steps can create meaningful long-term impact.

Keep reading to see the questions we asked and how he responded.

Can you tell us about your background and experience in youth work, sports, and environmental initiatives?

My name is Eman Borg, I am a human rights activist and a youth activist, originally hailing from the island of Gozo, nowadays I live in Malta. My experience with sports, my experience with youth, my experience with the environment, they're all interlinked really and truly. I served as the Secretary General of the University of Malta Rowing Club from 2018 to 2021 and I also have a Master's in International Sports and Events Management.



In your opinion, what are the main environmental challenges our community is facing?

We hear often about environmental challenges in Malta, from traffic to pollution, non-planning when it comes to urbanisation. These challenges are faced on a day-to-day basis. These challenges are challenges that we as young people are experiencing and these challenges are also affecting our day-to-day basis. These challenges are challenges that we as young people are experiencing and these challenges are also affecting our day-to-day life. They're affecting our physical health, they're affecting our mental health, they're affecting our emotional health and our health as a whole. And so we are to, as collective youth, to come up with a solid plan, a plan that will eventually render benefit for our long-term future. 

In what ways do you think sport can contribute to environmental education for youth?

As I mentioned, the challenges of environment, physical health, mental health, emotional health, they're all challenges that we're facing and through sports we can combat these challenges, we can all actually understand the language of sports. We often have debates on what is the most spoken language in the world and there's different answers, Hindu, English, etc. But really and truly the one universal language is the language of sports. You throw a ball and you already have that first communication with someone else who may not understand your spoken language. And that same language can elevate the pressures of environment through understanding the impact that we are having, both positive and negative, in the environment. From a football match to charity beach clean-up to other instances and initiatives, sports can really and truly be a force of non-formal education in order for young people to understand the implications of the climate reality that we are living in. 

What steps should we, as youth workers, take to effectively implement these ideas and tackle environmental challenges?

There are a number of steps that youth and youth workers can take to combat environmental challenges and I believe that one of the main steps is to have a collaborative effort, one effort that unites everyone's ideas and one action plan really and truly for the challenges that we're facing here in Malta. It is futile to have a number of initiatives that are more or less similar to each other and not collaborate, not have that partnership. It is important that we unite, it is important that we have conversations and it is important that we actually have a strategy as a young population here in Malta to have a more stronger voice, you know, it's one for all, all for one at the end of the day.



Do you have any closing thoughts or suggestions you’d like to share with us?

As a conclusion, my suggestion is one. As small as the initiative you think you're taking, do it. Do that action because at the end of the day it is that small step that can have a larger impact, it is that small step that can have a larger impact. It is that small step that when you collaborate with another person, with another individual, It is that small step that when you collaborate with another person, with another individual, with your peers at work, at university, at school, that small action will have a long-term ripple effect.