My involvement in voluntary work started in 1992, when I met the late Paddy Stubbs, who, together with his wife Janatha, founded the Razzett Tal Hbiberija in 1990. I was asked to help with fund-raising, and after having seen what potential the Razzett had, decided to put my efforts into this cause.

As a result of my involvement in the Razzett, I had the opportunity to meet various members of other voluntary organisations. I began to realise that there were many organisations I had not even heard of, let alone know what services they offered. It also occurred to me that the public in general was also quite unaware of much of this noble work.

Thinking of how to bridge this gap, and with my experience of Trade Fairs, I wanted to try and create a Fair with the intention of increasing public awareness of caring organisations. After discussions with my fellow directors at the Trade Fair, they kindly made the Fair premises available and in 1994 the first Caring Awareness Fair was held.

As a result of the success of this Fair, I established the Caring Organisations Support so that we would be able to promote the services of these voluntary organisations in different ways.

In this first Fair, around 45 organisations participated. Consecutive Fairs were held in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002 and the next one is due to be held soon – from the 20th to 23th May. Over 120 organisations will be participating in this Fair.

The main objectives in holding these Fairs are: to increase awareness of the services these organisations offer; to give an opportunity for these groups to liase with each other and to encourage members of the public to work in the field of volunteer service.

It must be strongly emphasised that this Fair is not a fund-raising event.

In conjunction with organising these Fairs, we began to publish a catalogue giving information about the participating organisations. However as many other organisations could not participate in the Fair for one reason or another, we then felt the need to compile and publish a more comprehensive Caring Organisations Directory, to give detailed information about as many of these voluntary groups as possible. In fact the 4th edition will be published in time for the next Fair.

I have also set up a web-site with details of these organisations. This can be visited on www.ngo-caring.global.net.mt

Also, as an on-going focus on the works of these organisations, I have a weekly live programme on RTK Radio, during which the public have the opportunity to phone in with queries and comments.

My organisation, the Caring Organisations Support, in 2002, was kindly donated a Welfare Coach by Mrs Muriel Hayward (above with Mr Calleja) together with the Variety Club, of the U.K., which is being used by those groups which work with abled and disabled bodied children.

It is of great personal satisfaction that I have seen the Fair grow from one edition to another. Also the Directory, from a modest 80 pages when it was first published as a catalogue, now has over 350 pages. I am sure that this still does not include all the voluntary groups that work in the field of social welfare. This is an ever changing and developing area and one that is so vital to our structure of society.