The Nationalist Party did so in its bid to rebuild its headquarters and the Malta Labour Party raised funds for its political campaigns. Together, they collected more than Lm200,000 which, at a time when it is said that the economy is faring badly, is quite a hefty amount, also considering that, generally speaking, each had approximately half the population at their disposal.

It has now become a habit for most of those who raise funds for a particular project or for charitable reasons to try to bring in more money by offering attractive prizes. On a national level, it is only the Kerygma organisation which has not changed its way of fund-raising during the volleyball marathon held every Summer – it continues to base its campaign on the sacrifice of volunteers, and offers a limited amount of prizes to be won by those who contribute.

In a way, this could have resulted in the drop in donations collected by Kerygma last Summer. In 10 days of volleyball playing under the hot August sun, Kerygma managed to raise Lm143,000. This was far less than it had collected a year earlier, and less than, say, the Lm163,000 collected by the Eden Foundation in just 14 hours a few weeks later. The difference in the sum could have been because the Eden Foundation exercise included a number of big prizes.

Last Monday, even the two political parties resorted to handing out many prizes to push their supporters into digging into their pockets to give a contribution. And soon, on 26 December, we will have the now traditional l-Istrina programme. Last year, over Lm1 million were donated in half a day, and this year the target is similar.

Again, l-Istrina will give out numerous big prizes to those who give their donation. The question that is frequently asked on such occasions is this: would l-Istrina, and other organisations who hold similar fund-raising events with big prizes, manage to collect so much if no prizes, especially big ones such as cars, are not given out?

The answer is no.

This makes us a nation of gamblers in matters that concern charity. Most people give their donation thinking that they might be getting something in return. Many ‘risk’ a Lm5 donation to try to win a car.

By so doing, they will be calming their conscience in that they would have given something to people in need. But, deep down, they know that the donation given was a gamble.

It would perhaps be better – and certainly more charitable – to send less money anonymously to an organisation that takes care of persons in need.

Of course, the enthusiasm that will reign during l-Istrina as the money keeps pouring in on Boxing Day will be enormous. But if (most of) those who contribute had to sit down quietly with their conscience they should be guilty and ashamed that they gave their donation hoping they get something in return.

The l-Istrina organisers this year also thought it fit to involve schoolchildren in their campaign. Their intentions were good. They wanted to get children to learn to give from the little that they have to others who have even less.

But, by doing so, they created other problems. Apart from the fact that children get their money from their parents who, in their great majority, already hand in donations during the actual l-Istrina, some children felt awkward and left out and were also bullied because their parents did not want or were not in a position to give them money to donate.