Description
The Youth Catholic Action Movement or ‘Żgħażagħ Azzjoni Kattolika’ is the youth arm of the Roman Catholic Church in Malta.
ŻAK is a branch of the global Catholic Action movement which had its beginnings in the latter part of the 19th century.
The first Malta Catholic Action youth group was set up in 1929 for students at the Royal University of Malta.
Its purpose was to provide programmes for the spiritual, social and personal development of young people.
In 1950, Summer Camps for children from low-income families were organised and grew in popularity across Malta and Gozo in the 1960s and 1970s.
Our archive film footage features one such camp in 1968.
In 2005, ŻAK was awarded the National Youth Awareness Prize by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector.
Today, it remains one of the most popular Maltese youth organisations as well as the Scouts, which were founded in Malta in 1908, and the Malta Girl Guides which started in 1918.
